M  ERIC  AN 
GOVERNMENT 

"^rederic  J.  Haskin 


III 


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g^STiTTrLPiWTri  j  i[r«=gtmcgw=HJh 


LIBRARY 


THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 

GIFT  OF 
NATHAN  A.  TEBBETTS 
IN  MEMORY  OF 
HIS  FATHER  AND  MOTHER, 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 


Before  publication  the  several  sections  of  this  book  M^ere 
read  and  approved  by  the  following  authorities: 

I. — The  President.  XVI. — The  Smithsonian  Institution. 


William  H.  Taft,  President  of 
the    United  States. 

II. — The  Department  of  State. 
Philander  C.  Knox,  Secrelary 
of  State. 

III. — The  Treasury  Department. 
Franklin  MaoVeaqh,  Secretary 
of  the   Treasury. 

IV.— The  Army. 

Maj.  Gen.  Leonard  Wood, 
Chief  of  Staff. 

V. — The  Navy. 

Rear  Admiral  Richard  Wain- 

■WRioHT,   Aid  for  Operations. 

VI.— The  Postal  Service. 

Frank  H.  Hitchcock,  Postmaa- 
ter  General. 

VII. — The  Interior  Department. 
Carmi  a.  Thompson,  Acting  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior, 

VIII.— The  Patent  Office. 

Edward  B.  Moore,  Commis- 
sioner of  Patents. 

IX. — The  Geological  Survey. 

Henry  C.  Rizer,  Acting  Director 

X. — The  Department  of  Agriculture. 
James    Wilson,       Secretary    of 
Agriculture. 

XI. — ^The  Weather  Bureau. 

Willis  L.  Moohe,  Chief  of  the 
Weather  Bureau. 

XII. — The  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor. 
Charles    Nagel,    Secretary   of 
Commerce  and  Labor. 

Xfll. — ^The  Census  Bureau. 

E.  Dana  Durand,  Director  of 
the  Census. 

XIV. — The  Bureau  of  Standards. 
S.  W.  Stratton,  Director. 

XV.— The  Public  Health. 

Dr.  Harvey  W.  Wiley,  Chief  of 
the  Bureau  of  Chemistry. 

Dr.  Walter  Wtman,  Surgeon 
General  of  the  Public  Health 
and  Marine  Hospital   Service. 


Richard  Rathbdn,  Acting  Sec- 
retary. 

XVII.— The  Panama  Canal. 

Col.  George  W.  Goethals, 
Chairman  and  Chief  Engineer. 

XVIII. — The    Interstate    Commerce 
Commission. 
JuDSON  C.  Clements,  Chairman. 
XIX. — Our  Insular  Possessions. 

Brig.  Gen.  Clarence  R.  Ed- 
wards, Chief  of  the  Bureau  of 
Insular  Affairs. 

XX. — How  Congress  legislates. 

Senator  Thomas  S.  Martin, 
Chairman  of  the  Democratic 
Conference. 

XXI. — The    House    of    Representa- 
tives. 
Champ  Clakk,  Speaker, 
XXII.— The  Senate. 

James  S.  Sherman,  Vice  Presi- 
dent of  the    United  States. 

XXIII. — The  Library  of  Congress. 
Herbert  Putnam,  Librarian. 

XXIV. — The   Government    Printing 
Office. 

Samuel  B.  Donnelly,  Public 
Printer. 

XXV.— The  Civil  Service. 

John  C.  Blav;k,  President  Civil 
Service  Commission. 

XXVI.— The  Supreme  Court. 

James  H.  McKenney,  Clerk  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States. 

XXVII.— Other  Federal  Courts. 
Wilbur     S.     Hinman,     Deputy 
Clerk  of  the  United  Slates  Com- 
merce Court. 

XXVIII.— The  Department  of  Jus- 
tice. 
George  W.  Wickersham,  Attor- 
ney General. 

XXIX. — The  Pan  American  Union. 
John  Barrett,  Director  General. 

XXX.— The  National  Capital. 

CuNO  H.  Rudolph,  President  of 
the  Board  of  Commissioners  of 
the  District  of  Columbia. 


THE  AMERICAN 
GOVERNMENT 


BY 

FREDERIC  J.  HASKIN 


ILLUSTRATIONS  FROM  PHOTOGRAPHS 

TAKEN  ESPECIALLY  FOR   THIS  EDITION  BT 

BARNEY  M.  CLINEDINST 


NEW  YORK 
PRINTED  FOR  THE  AUTHOR 

BY 

J.  J.  LITTLE  &  IVES  CO. 
1912 


COPTEIGHT,  1911, 

By  FREDERIC  J.  HASKIN 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall 
London,  October,  1911 


375th  Thousand 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Inteoduction        ...'...     15 

I. — The  President 23 

II. — The  State  Department        ...     35 
in. — The  Treasury  Department  ...    47 

IV.— The  Army 59 

v.— The  Navy 71 

VI. — The  Postal  Service 83. 

VII. — The  Interior  Department      ...     95 

VIII. — The  Patent  Office 107 

IX. — The  Geological  Survey  ....  119 

X. — The  Department  of  Agriculture     .  133 

XI. — The  Weather  Bureau     ....  145 

XII. — Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  157 

XIII. — The  Census  Bureau       ....  171 

XIV. — The  Bureau  of  Standards    .      .       .  183 

XV.— The  Public  Health 195 

XVI. — The  Smithsonian  Institution    .      .  207 

XVIL— The  Panama  Canal 219 

XVIII. — The  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion    231 

XIX. — Our  Insular  Possessions      .      .      .  245 

9 


10  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

XX. — How  Congress  Legislates      .      .      .  257 
XXI. — .The  House  of  Representatives  .      .  269 

XXII.— The  Senate 281 

XXIII. — The  Library  of  Congress      .       .       .  293 
XXrV. — The  Government  Printing  Office    .  305 

XXV.— The  Civil  Service 317 

XXVI.— The  Supreme  Court        ....  329 

XXVII. — Other  Federal  Courts    ....  341 

XXVIII. — The  Department  of  Justicb      .      .  353 

XXIX. — The  Pan  American  Union    ,      .      .  365 

XXX.— The  National  Capital    .      •      .      .  377 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTEATIONS. 

PAGE 

Entrance  to  White  House 28 

Tourists  waiting  to  ascend  Washington  Monu- 
ment         36 

Declaration  of  Independence 44 

Printing  Dollar  Bills 52 

Troopers  at  Fort  Myer 60 

Clock  that  regulates  time  for  the  United  States  68 

The  Naval  Observatory 76 

Destroying  Old  Paper  Money 92 

Searching  the  files  in  the  Patent  Office      .      .  108 

Observation  Tower  at  Weather  Bureau      ,      .  148 

Machine  that  tests  Standard  Weights    .      .      .  188 

Dr.   Wiley  at  Work 196 

Preparing  Tuberculin  for  Shipment      .      .      .  204 

Government  Taxidermist 212 

Roosevelt  Lions  in  National  Museum    .      .      ,  220 

Testing  Steel  for  the  Panama  Canal      .      .      .  228 

A  View  in  Washington 260 

Bearing  the  Mace 276 

Grand  Stairway  in  Library  of  Congress      .      .  300 

Court  in  Pan  American  Building    ....  372 

11 


PEEFACE. 

While  this  book  is  a  generally  comprehensive  re- 
view of  the  actual  work  of  the  Federal  Government 
of  the  United  States,  it  does  not  pretend  to  relate 
the  complete  history  of  the  several  departments  nor 
to  present  a  full  account  of  all  of  the  details  of  their 
present  activities.  To  do  so  would  require  many, 
many  volumes  of  this  size.  However,  the  reader 
who  would  be  informed  on  the  actual  operations  of 
his  Government  v,dll  find  this  presentation  a  depend- 
able source  of  information  on  the  more  important 
phases  of  the  subject. 


13 


INTRODUCTION. 

This  book  is  to  tell  about  the  work  of  the  Federal 
Govermnent  of  the  United  States  of  America,  the 
most  active  and  powerful  Nation  in  the  world,  what 
is  required  of  the  servants  of  its  people  from  the 
President  down,  and  how  these  officers  perform  that 
service. 

It  is  not  designed  as  a  treatise  on  the  science  of 
government,  nor  as  an  exposition  of  the  peculiar 
political  structure  of  the  United  States.  It  is, 
rather,  an  effort  to  tell  in  the  ordinary  language  of 
everyday  life  what  the  Government  does  and  how 
it  does  it. 

The  United  States  is  the  largest  Nation  in  the  world, 
in  population,  area,  and  wealth,  whose  people  speak 
one  language  and  enjoy  the  privilege  of  self-govern- 
ment. The  American  people  govern  themselves  by 
means  of  a  complicated  machinery  unlike  that  of  any 
other  Nation.  Things  that  are  local  in  their  nature, 
or  that  were  local  at  the  time  the  Constitution  was 
adopted,  are  under  the  control  of  the  semi-independ- 
ent governments  of  the  several  States.  These 
States,  in  turn,  acknowledge  certain  rights  of  local 
government  to  more  restricted  areas,  such  as  cities 
and  towns,  counties  and  school  districts. 

15 


16  INTEODUCTION 

The  Federal  Government,  with  which  this  book  is 
solely  concerned,  derives  its  powers  from  the  States 
and  the  people,  and  is  strictly  limited  in  its  activities 
to  affairs  concerning  the  whole  Nation,  or  more  than 
one  State,  as  defined  in  the  Constitution  of  1787  and 
its  amendments  of  subsequent  dates. 

Measured  in  terms  of  receipts  and  expenditures  of 
public  money,  the  Federal  Government  represents 
but  little  more  than  a  third  of  the  business  of  gov- 
ernment in  this  country.  Yet  in  spite  of  this  limita- 
tion, the  national  governmental  machine  is  in  many 
respects  the  most  powerful  and  most  active  in  the 
world. 

The  work  of  the  Government  in  this  advanced  and 
advancing  age  is  not  confined  to  the  things  usually 
denoted  by  the  word  '' government. "  No  longer  a 
mere  collector  of  taxes  and  a  wager  of  war,  the  mod- 
ern government  must  needs  aid  its  people  in  the  cre- 
ation of  wealth  and  the  progress  of  culture. 

Our  Government  is  a  builder.  It  undertakes  to 
construct  almost  anything,  from  a  gun  that  will  hurl 
two-thirds  of  a  ton  of  steel  a  distance  of  15  miles  to 
a  pair  of  scales  so  delicate  that  the  balance  will  turn 
sharply  under  the  weight  of  a  millionth  part  of  a 
grain.  Our  Government  is  an  operator.  It  takes 
observations  of  temperature  with  a  thermometer  so 
sensitive  that  it  will  measure  the  heat  of  a  candle  5 
miles  away,  and  it  operates  a  gigantic  testing  ma- 
chine that  will  register  a  strain  of  10,000,000  pounds. 

It  performs  functions  ranging  from  the  conduct 
of  international  diplomatic  affairs  to  the  driving  of 
mules;  from  making  maps  to  feeding  hogs;  from 


INTKODUCTION  17 

coining  money  to  making  ice  cream;  from  digging 
canals  to  flying  kites. 

The  service  of  a  half  million  men  and  women  and 
the  expenditure  of  more  than  a  billion  dollars  a  year 
are  required  to  keep  this  huge  machine  going. 

This  is  the  same  machine  that  was  set  going  a  cen- 
tury and  a  quarter  ago  by  the  impoverished  people 
of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  numbering  altogether  not 
3,000,000.  They  established  the  Government  more 
in  hope  than  in  confidence,  and  not  the  wisest  seer 
nor  the  most  optimistic  dreamer  among  them  would 
have  dared  to  predict  the  things  that  this  book  sets 
forth. 

That  baby  Government  was  so  poor  that  it  was 
forced  to  borrow  money  upon  the  personal  credit  of 
its  officers,  or  to  beg  the  little  better  credit  of  one  of 
its  constituent  States.  When  the  Capitol  was  built 
at  Washington  (the  central  part  of  the  same  build- 
ing in  which  the  laws  are  now  made),  the  United 
States  was  forced  to  borrow  the  money  to  pay  the 
laborers  from  the  wealthie  governments  of  Mary- 
land and  Virginia.  Now  the  credit  of  the  United 
States  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  Nation,  and 
it  borrows  money  upon  more  advantageous  terms 
than  can  any  of  the  great  Nations  of  Europe  that  so 
lately  smiled  indulgently  upon  what  they  called  ' '  the 
American  experiment." 

It  is  a  great  country  as  well  as  a  great  Govern- 
ment. Having  only  one-sixteenth  of  the  world's 
population,  the  United  States  has  a  fourth  of  its 
wealth,  owns  a  third  of  its  railways,  distributes  a 
third  of  its  mail,  wields  a  third  of  its  banking  power, 


18  INTRODUCTION 

and  prints  more  than  half  of  its  newspapers  and 
magazines. 

Having  only  one-twentieth  of  the  landed  area  of 
the  civilized  world,  the  United  States  produces  one- 
fifth  of  its  wheat,  one-third  of  its  coal,  one-fourth  of 
its  gold,  one-third  of  its  manufactured  wares,  nearly 
one-half  of  its  steel,  more  than  half  of  its  petroleum, 
nearly  two-thirds  of  its  cotton,  and  four-fifths  of  its 
corn.  It  is  the  land  of  plenty,  for  it  is  the  only  coun- 
try on  earth,  excepting  some  of  the  British  colonies, 
where  an  ordinary  laboring  man  may  eat  meat  every 
day  if  he  wants  it. 

Unlike  all  Governments  that  had  preceded  it  in  the 
history  of  politics,  the  United  States  Government  is 
established  upon  a  principle  of  divided  authority  and 
responsibility.  Not  only  are  restrictions  placed 
upon  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government  by  the 
reservation  to  the  States  and  the  people  of  all 
powers  not  enumerated  in  the  Constitution,  but  there 
is  also  the  separation  of  the  executive,  the  legisla- 
tive, and  the  judicial  functions  of  government  into 
three  branches  of  equal  majesty  and  importance.  In 
a  constitutional  monarchy  like  Great  Britain,  or  a 
parliamentary  Republic  like  France,  the  legislative 
branch  of  the  Government  is  supreme.  In  a  Federal 
Empire  like  Germany,  or  an  autocratic  Empire  like 
Russia,  the  executive  branch  of  the  Government  is 
supreme.  In  our  country,  in  theory,  the  three 
branches  are  coordinate  and  equal,  although  some- 
times one  asserts  its  power  over  the  other  two  in  a 
particular  matter. 

For  instance,  the  Supreme  Court  may  nullify  a 


INTRODUCTION  19 

law  passed  by  Congress  on  the  theory  that  it  is  un- 
constitutional;  the  President  may  refuse  to  execute 
a  decree  of  the  Supreme  Court;  and  Congress  may 
refuse  to  vote  money  for  the  supply  of  the  executive 
departments.    But  these  are  exceptional  things. 

The  executive  or  law-enforcing  function  of  the 
Government  is  vested  in  the  President.  He  appoints 
the  Cabinet  officers  who  superintend,  the  depart- 
ments, and  is,  finally,  responsible  for  all  of  the  va- 
ried activities  of  the  executive  branch  of  the  Gov- 
ernment— a  responsibility  that  includes  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  work  of  the  Government  and  is 
greater  than  that  laid  upon  the  shoulders  of  any 
other  mortal  man. 

The  legislative  or  law-making  function  of  the 
Government  is  vested  in  Congress.  Representatives, 
elected  by  the  people,  compose  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, or  lower  chamber,  and  in  this  body  must 
originate  all  bills  having  to  do  with  taxing  the  peo- 
ple. Senators  chosen  by  the  States,  two  from  each 
State,  compose  the  Senate,  or  upper  chamber.  The 
concurrence  of  the  Senate  is  required  in  all  legisla- 
tive acts  and  also  in  certain  Executive  deeds,  includ- 
ing the  appointment  of  officers  and  the  ratification 
of  treaties  with  foreign  powers.  The  President  has 
a  part  in  the  legislative  function,  also,  since  he  may 
veto  a  bill  passed  by  Congress  and  unless  it  is  passed 
a  second  time  by  a  two-thirds  vote  in  both  Houses  it 
can  not  become  a  law. 

The  judicial  or  law-interpreting  function  of  the 
Government  is  vested  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  and  other  Federal  courts  created  by 


20  INTRODUCTION 

Congress.  The  Supreme  Court  is  the  final  arbiter 
of  all  disputes  arising  under  the  laws  of  the  Federal 
Government,  and  as  the  interpreter  of  the  Constitu- 
tion it  can  set  aside  the  acts  of  Congress  or  of  the 
President  on  the  ground  that  the  power  delegated 
by  the  States  and  the  people  in  the  Constitution  has 
been  exceeded. 

Upon  this  triangular  framework  has  been  erected 
the  marvelous  machine  that  we  call  the  American 
Government.  Its  political  complications  are  such 
that  no  man  may  describe  them  without  provoking 
controversy,  and  with  them  this  book  has  nothing 
to  do. 

Leaving  on  one  side  the  considerations  of  the 
statesman  who  is  concerned  with  theories,  and  on 
the  other  those  of  the  politician  who  is  concerned 
with  expedients,  this  book  represents  an  effort  to 
tell  of  the  work  and  the  workers  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment. 

It  is  a  plain  account  of  how  the  President,  the 
Congress,  the  Supreme  Court,  and  all  of  the  other 
half  million  servants  of  the  American  people  do  the 
work  of  the  people  for  the  people. 

It  is  the  story  of  the  actual  doings  of  the  men  who, 
as  officers  of  the  Government,  protect  this  Nation 
against  foreign  foes,  administer  its  laws  to  preserve 
peace  at  home,  safeguard  the  public  health  and  pros- 
perity, conserve  the  use  of  its  national  resources, 
encourage  its  inventive  genius,  and  do  all  in  their 
power  to  advance  its  moral  and  material  inter- 
ests. 

It  is  a  story  to  make  every  American  breast  swell 


INTRODUCTION  21 

with  pride,  a  story  whose  hard  facts  loom  so  large 
in  the  record  of  the  world's  accomplishments  that 
the  knowledge  of  them  can  not  but  increase  the  love 
and  honor  all  of  ns  have  for  the  Land  of  the  Free 
and  the  Home  of  the  Brave. 


THE  AMERICAN  GOVEENMENT 


I. 

THE  PEESIDENT. 

The  President  of  tlie  United  States  is  the  fore- 
most ruler  of  the  world.  He  is  not  a  ruler  by  acci- 
dent of  birth,  but  by  virtue  of  the  will  of  90,000,000 
people,  who  fight  the  world's  greatest  political  bat- 
tle every  four  years  for  his  selection,  and  then  will- 
ingly and  fully  acquiesce  in  the  verdict  of  the  ballot 
box. 

Election  to  the  Presidency  carries  with  it  a  vast 
responsibility.  The  successful  candidate  faces  four 
years  of  administering  the  laws  of  the  greatest  Na- 
tion on  earth,  acting  as  the  master  mind  of  a  huge 
machine  manned  by  nearly  half  a  million  men  and 
women,  a  machine  which  can  patch  a  mail  bag,  study 
a  plant  louse,  maneuver  an  army,  or  dig  a  Panama 
Canal. 

Congress  makes  the  Nation's  laws,  the  courts  in- 
terpret them,  and  the  President  executes  them.  Con- 
gress may  appropriate  a  billion  dollars  a  year,  but 
the  President  must  execute  the  laws  by  which  this 

23 


24         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

vast  sum  is  raised,  as  well  as  those  under  which  it  is 
spent.  When  he  assumes  the  Presidency,  he  under- 
takes to  carry  out  laws  which,  during  his  term,  call 
for  the  expenditure  of  nearly  $4,000,000,000.  Not 
only  is  it  incumbent  upon  the  President  to  execute 
the  laws,  but  he  must  take  an  important  part  in 
framing  them.  He  must,  from  time  to  time,  send 
messages  to  Congress,  advising  that  body  of  the 
condition  of  the  country  and  as  to  what  legislation 
is  needed  for  the  improvement  of  those  conditions. 
Through  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  he  must  also 
inform  Congress  just  how  much  money  will  be 
needed  to  keep  the  Government  going  during  the 
next  year,  and  when  Congress  appropriates  these 
funds  that  action  is  not  completed  until  the  President 
has  scrutinized  and  signed  the  appropriation 
measures. 

"While  the  President  has  a  Cabinet  to  assist  him  in 
his  supervision  of  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the 
Nation,  under  the  Constitution  he  is  solely  respon- 
sible for  any  official  action  any  member  of  the  body 
may  take.  As  a  collective  organization,  the  Cabinet 
has  no  constitutional  standing,  its  decisions  being 
in  nowise  binding  upon  the  President.  This  is  illus- 
trated by  a  story  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  brought  be- 
fore his  Cabinet  a  proposition  which  he  favored  and 
the  Cabinet  voted  against  it.  He  declared  the  votes 
to  be  7  noes  and  1  aye.  *' Therefore, "  said  he,  *'the 
ayes  have  it. ' '  The  President,  with  his  attention  de- 
manded upon  every  kind  of  matter,  from  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  postmaster  at  Podunk  to  the  deter- 
mination of  the  proper  course  to  pursue  in  a  great 


THE  PEESIDENT  25 

international  situation,  is  a  very  busy  man.  But  he 
lias  so  systematized  his  work  that  he  has  almost  as 
much  time  for  recreation  as  the  average  man  of 
affairs. 

For  instance,  although  his  mail  is  the  largest  re- 
ceived by  the  head  of  any  Government  on  earth,  it  is 
so  handled  that  the  task  of  going  through  it  is  not 
a  very  burdensome  one.  The  daily  number  of  let- 
ters ranges  from  500  to  2,000,  but  less  than  a  hun- 
dred of  these  require  the  personal  attention  of  the 
President.  There  is  one  clerk  in  the  Executive 
Offices  whose  sole  duty  is  to  classify  this  correspond- 
ence as  it  comes  in.  A  card-index  system  of  all  cor- 
respondence is  maintained  with  a  complete  filing  sys- 
tem in  connection.  Probably  a  hundred  letters  of  a 
day's  mail  may  be  answered  by  a  single  form  letter, 
without  even  engaging  the  attention  of  the  Secretary 
to  the  President.  Several  hundred  of  the  remainder 
will  be  distributed  to  the  various  departments  and 
perhaps  less  than  half  will  reach  the  Secretary  to 
the  President.  Of  those  which  do,  the  secretary 
makes  a  digest  and  when  the  President  has  a  moment 
of  leisure  his  secretary  gives  him  their  substance 
and  receives  instructions  as  to  the  replies  to  be 
made.  Letters  are  often  addressed  to  the  President 
and  his  wife  marked  '* personal"  and  ''private,"  but 
these  marks  are  necessarily  disregarded.  Only  let- 
ters initialed  by  intimate  personal  and  political 
friends  reach  the  President  unopened. 

Probably  no  other  official  in  the  world  receives 
more  begging  letters  than  the  President  of  the 
United    States.    It  is  estimated  that  in  many  in- 


26         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

stances  the  letters  of  this  nature  received  in  the 
course  of  a  single  day  ask  for  as  much  as  $20,000 
in  the  aggregate.  Often  the  letter-writing  proclivi- 
ties of  the  beggars  are  stimulated  by  jokes  which  the 
Washington  correspondents  sometimes  perpetrate 
upon  the  President.  When  Mr.  Roosevelt  first  enun- 
ciated his  celebrated  anti-race-suicide  doctrine,  some 
humorous  newspaper  writer  sent  out  a  story  to  the 
effect  that  the  President  had  received  28  baby  car- 
riages. It  was  published  broadcast,  and  hundreds  of 
poor  families  wrote  asking  him  for  these  carriages. 

Writing  to  the  President  has  become  much  more 
general  in  recent  years  than  formerly.  It  is  said 
that  during  the  Grant  administration  the  Executive 
force  used  to  play  croquet  during  the  dull  hours  of 
the  day  and  only  upon  the  arrival  of  the  mail  would 
be  summoned  to  the  Executive  Offices. 

The  constant  stream  of  callers  and  the  vast 
amount  of  routine  business  make  the  heaviest  de- 
mands upon  the  time  of  the  President.  During  the 
first  three  or  four  weeks  of  his  administration,  he 
may  have  to  shake  hands  with  from  50,000  to  75,000 
people.  Unless  he  learns  to  grip  the  hand  of  his 
visitor  before  the  visitor  grips  his,  he  is  sure  to  have 
a  badly  swollen  arm.  The  President  may  transact 
the  business  of  his  office  at  any  place  he  may  elect, 
and  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  his  spending  the 
major  portion  of  his  time  elsewhere  than  in  Wash- 
ington. Congress  once  asked  President  Grant  ta 
advise  it  as  to  what  part  of  his  duties  were  per- 
formed outside  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  He  re- 
plied in  a  polite,  but  none  the  less  pointed,  note  that 


THE  PRESIDENT  27 

it  was  none  of  Congress'  business.  Never  since  then 
has  this  right  been  questioned.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  Constitution  which  prohibits  the  President  from 
going  beyond  the  borders  of  the  United  States,  but 
Mr.  Cleveland  was  the  first  President  to  do  so.  On 
a  fishing  trip  he  went  beyond  the  3-mile  limit  in  the 
Atlantic  Ocean. 

Aside  from  the  great  power  accruing  to  the  Presi- 
dent through  his  right  to  appoint  all  of  the  adminis- 
trative officers  of  the  Government,  and  to  supervise 
the  expenditure  of  the  billions  of  dollars  appropri- 
ated by  Congress,  and  beyond  the  prestige  which  his 
office  gives  him,  he  possesses  the  power  which,  prior 
to  the  admission  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico, 
amounted  to  the  legislative  influence  of  14  Senators 
and  65  Representatives,  this  many  votes  being  re- 
quired in  addition  to  a  majority  to  override  his  veto. 
The  only  method  by  which  the  President  can  be 
thwarted  in  his  purpose  by  Congress,  so  long  as  he 
keeps  within  his  constitutional  powers,  is  by  its  re- 
fusal to  appropriate  the  money  he  needs  for  carrying 
out  his  plans.  As  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army 
he  has  the  right  to  handle  it  as  he  sees  fit.  But  Con- 
gress controls  the  appropriations  for  the  support  of 
the  Army,  and  it  provides  that  this  money  shall  be 
available  only  when  the  Army  is  handled  in  a  specific 
way.  This  same  check  upon  the  President  is  used  in 
other  instances. 

The  person  of  the  President  is  inviolable  during 
his  term  of  office.  Theoretically  he  can  not  be  ar- 
rested or  restrained  by  any  official,  even  should  he 
commit  murder.    The  only  remedy  against  him  while 


28         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

President  is  tlie  cumbersome  proceedings  of  im- 
peacliment.  Even  in  tliese  proceedings  he  can  not 
be  compelled  to  answer,  to  attend,  or  to  do  any  other 
thing  which  in  the  slightest  degree  might  interfere 
with  his  personal  liberty.  This  is  upon  the  theory 
that  snch  restraint  would  restrict  either  the  negative 
or  the  positive  powers  of  his  office,  and  enable  other 
individuals  to  circumvent  the  supreme  authority  of 
the  Constitution.  In  practice,  however,  the  Presi- 
dent may  be  arrested  and  otherwise  restrained.  Gen- 
eral Grant  was  once  arrested  by  a  negro  policeman 
for  fast  driving.  He  commended  the  officer  for  do- 
ing his  duty,  put  up  $20  collateral  and  forfeited  it  in 
the  police  court  next  day. 

As  far  as  the  courts  are  concerned,  the  President 
may  also  do  as  he  pleases.  Interested  parties  have 
sought  to  restrain  him  from  doing  certain  things  by 
injunction  proceedings,  or  to  compel  him  to  do  other 
things  by  mandamus,  but  the  courts  have  uniformly 
refused  to  take  any  action  hampering  the  discretion- 
ary power  of  the  President.  Congress  and  the  Pres- 
ident often  clash,  but  the  judiciary  and  the  President 
seldom  do.  In  one  instance  Chief  Justice  Marshall 
handed  down  an  opinion  with  reference  to  an  Indian 
tribe,  which  did  not  suit  President  Jackson,  who  de- 
clared: ''John  Marshall  has  made  his  decision,  now 
let  him  enforce  it." 

While  many  people  complain  that  the  President  is 
a  poorly  paid  and  poorly  housed  Chief  Executive, 
considering  the  size  and  importance  of  the  American 
nation,  nevertheless  be  manages  to  live  in  a  style 
which  woul(i  be  pleasing  to  the  average  American 


■f  *A 


r 


ENTRANCE  TO  WHITE  HOUSE. 


THE  PRESIDENT  29 

citizen.  The  annual  appropriation  for  the  upkeep  of 
the  White  House  amounts  approximately  to  $86,000. 
A  fine  conservatory  is  maintained  for  his  benefit,  and 
it  is  estimated  that  the  5,000  or  more  plants  used  to 
decorate  the  White  House  at  a  single  reception 
would  cost  at  least  $2,500,  if  bought  in  the  open  mar- 
ket. A  single  set  of  china  used  at  the  big  state  din- 
ners may  cost  as  much  as  $6,000.  When  the  sup- 
plies for  one  of  these  big  dinners  are  bought,  only 
the  best  things  in  the  market  get  into  the  White 
House  market  basket,  and  only  the  choicest  morsels 
of  these  are  served.  A  large  roast  of  lamb  is  pro- 
vided for  each  five  people  at  the  dinner  so  that  only 
the  most  select  bits  reach  the  table. 

The  salary  of  the  President  now  amounts  to 
$75,000  a  year,  or  $6,250  a  month.  He  is  the  only 
official  of  the  Government  who  is  not  required  to 
sign  the  pay  roll.  In  the  time  of  President  Cleve- 
land the  salary  of  the  President  was  $4,166.66|  a 
month.  So  accurate  is  the  Treasury  system  of  book- 
keeping that  the  salary  check  of  the  President  was 
drawn  for  $4,166.66  one  month  and  $4,166.67  for  the 
next  two  months.  At  the  end  of  his  term  it  was 
found  that  there  was  still  due  President  Cleveland 
the  amount  of  1  cent,  so  a  check  for  that  amount  was 
drawn  in  his  favor.  It  has  never  been  cashed,  but 
is  one  of  the  souvenirs  of  the  Cleveland  home  in 
Princeton,  N.  J.  The  President  of  the  United  States 
is  one  of  the  most  photographed  persons  in  the 
world.  It  is  said  that  one  Washington  photographer 
has  taken  more  than  a  thousand  pictures  of  Presi- 
dent Taf  t. 


30         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

The  quadrennial  election  at  which  the  American 
people  choose  their  President  for  the  ensuing  four 
years  is  the  greatest  political  battle  of  the  world. 
Investigation  discloses  the  fact  that  the  names  of 
more  than  700,000  candidates  are  on  the  ballots 
which  are  cast  the  day  of  a  Presidential  election. 
Every  telegraph  and  telephone  company  in  the  coun- 
try lends  itself  to  the  public  that  night  for  the  trans- 
mission of  the  returns.  No  one  has  attempted  to 
estimate  the  amount  of  business  they  carry  over 
their  wires  election  night,  but  if  paid  for  at  the  usual 
rate  it  would  cost  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars. 
Even  the  wireless  companies  make  special  efforts  to 
keep  ships  at  sea  informed  as  to  the  progress  of  the 
count. 

The  President  is  inaugurated  about  four  months 
after  his  election.  While  a  Presidential  candidate 
always  receives  notification  of  his  nomination,  the 
President-elect  receives  no  such  advice,  but  gets  his 
information  from  the  newspapers,  and  presents  him- 
self in  Washington  a  few  days  before  his  inaugura- 
tion. A  Presidential  inauguration  is  one  of  the 
finest  governmental  spectacles  in  the  world.  Its  im- 
pressiveness  lies  in  its  simplicity  rather  than  in  its 
display.  Each  inauguration  is  on  a  larger  and  more 
brilliant  scale  than  its  predecessor.  Over  30,000 
men  march  in  a  present  day  inaugural  parade. 
Nearly  200,000  people  come  to  Washington  from  all 
parts  of  the  country  to  witness  it.  Daniel  Webster 
said  of  the  crowd  which  attended  the  first  inaugura- 
tion of  Andrew  Jackson  that  it  was  ''a  multitude, 
too  many  to  be  fed  without  a  miracle,  and  that  it 


THE  PEESIDENT  31 

seemed  that  the  whole  Nation  rushed  to  the  Cap- 
ital." The  ''great  multitude"  was  computed  to  be 
about  8,000  people.  The  first  real  inaugural  ball 
occurred  when  James  Madison  came  into  ofl&ce.  The 
crowd  which  attended  was  estimated  at  400.  Pro- 
vision was  made  for  15,000  at  the  Taft  inaugural 
ball. 

George  Washington  had  to  borrow  $3,000  to  de- 
fray his  expenses  to  New  York,  where  his  inaugura- 
tion took  place.  When  he  arrived  at  the  Federal 
Hall  it  was  found  that  there  was  no  Bible  in  the 
building,  and  an  attendant  saved  the  day  by  getting 
one  from  a  Masonic  lodge  room  near-by.  John 
Adams  wrote  after  his  inauguration  that  there  was 
more  weeping  when  he  took  the  oath  of  office  than 
he  had  ever  witnessed  at  a  tragedy,  but  whether  it 
was  from  the  loss  of  a  beloved  President  or  the 
accession  of  an  unpopular  one,  he  could  not  say. 
When  he  was  succeeded  by  Jefferson  he  moved  out 
the  night  before  and  refused  to  ride  to  the  Capitol 
with  his  successor  or  even  to  welcome  him  to  the 
White  House.  President  Johnson  refused  to  meet 
General  Grant,  it  having  come  to  his  ears  that  Gen- 
eral Grant  had  said  he  would  not  ride  to  the  Capitol 
with  Johnson.  James  Monroe  was  the  originator 
of  the  custom  of  holding  the  inaugural  ceremony  on 
the  East  Portico  of  the  Capitol. 

After  a  President  is  inaugurated,  unless  the  state 
of  public  affairs  demands  the  convening  of  an  extra 
session  of  Congress,  he  has  but  little  work  to  do 
other  than  to  name  the  higher  officials  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, until  the  ensuing  fall,  when  he  sends  his 


32         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

first  annual  message  to  Congress.  In  it  the  Presi- 
dent outlines  in  full  his  policies,  and  tries  to  win  the 
approval  of  the  Nation  by  its  contents.  In  order 
that  it  may  be  as  widely  circulated  as  possible,  he  has 
copies  of  it  sent  into  every  newspaper  office  in  the 
country  before  it  is  officially  published,  and  linotype 
operators  from  Maine  to  Mexico  read  the  message 
before  it  reaches  Congress.  The  moment  its  read- 
ing is  begun  in  the  halls  of  Congress  every  news- 
paper is  informed  that  the  message  is  "released," 
whereupon  the  paper  goes  upon  the  street  within  a 
few  minutes,  containing  the  whole  thing. 

Great  care  is  taken  to  prevent  a  premature  pub- 
lication of  a  Presidential  message.  There  has  never 
been  a  leak  through  a  newspaper  betraying  the  con- 
fidence reposed  in  it,  but  there  have  been  leaks  other- 
wise. During  the  Harrison  administration  an  em- 
ployee of  the  Government  Printing  Office  sold  a  copy 
of  it  to  the  Washington  correspondent  of  a  New 
York  newspaper.  During  the  Roosevelt  administra- 
tion th^President  himself  sent  advance  copies  to  the 
magazines,  and  some  of  these  took  the  message  into 
IWall  Street  before  it  was  officially  released. 

President  Roosevelt  was  the  champion  message 
writer  of  American  history.  He  wrote  more  than 
twice  as  many  messages  as  were  written  by  Presi- 
dent Cleveland,  and  it  is  said  that  if  the  vocabularies 
of  all  the  other  Presidents  were  boiled  down  into  one 
composite  whole,  it  would  be  found  that  he  used  a 
greater  range  of  words  in  expressing  his  views  than 
all  of  the  others  together. 

The  literary  merit  of  McKinley's  messages  im- 


THE  PRESIDENT  33 

proved  after  Jolin  Hay  became  his  ranking  adviser, 
and  the  literary  folk  say  that  even  Washington's 
Farewell  Address  shows  a  good  deal  of  Alexander 
Hamilton  in  it.  On  the  other  hand,  J.  Pierpont 
Morgan  has  the  original  letter  written  by  George 
Washington  to  James  Madison  asking  him  to  pre- 
pare the  Farewell  Address  and  outlining  completely 
the  proposed  paper.  James  Madison  also  wrote  the 
famous  nullification  proclamation  issued  by  Andrew 
Jackson.  What  is  perhaps  the  finest  message  in  the 
history  of  the  Presidency  is  credited  to  Andrew 
Johnson,  who  had  fewer  educational  advantages  than 
any  other  man  who  has  ever  been  President  of  the 
United  States.  However,  it  was  written  by  George 
Bancroft,  the  historian.  The  original  draft  is  now 
in  the  Manuscript  Division  of  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress, in  Bancroft's  handwriting,  vnth  only  a  few 
unimportant  additions  and  references  added  in  the 
hand  of  President  Johnson. 

Sometimes  a  Presidential  message  declares  a  prin- 
ciple which  comes  to  be  universally  accepted  as  fun- 
damental, and  thus  becomes  as  much  a  part  of  the 
organic  law  as  if  it  had  been  incorporated  in  the  Con- 
stitution itself.  An  instance  of  this  is  the  Monroe 
doctrine.  "When  in  one  of  his  messages  President 
Monroe  declared  that  the  United  States  would  not 
tolerate  further  extension  of  European  dominions  in 
the  Western  World,  he  laid  down  a  principle  ever 
since  accepted  as  a  cardinal  precept  of  American 
dijolomacy. 

President  Taft,  in  six  years  of  speechmaking,  be- 
fore  and    after   becoming   President,   has    uttered 


34         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

nearly  2,000,000  words  in  his  public  addresses.  A 
stenographer  always  goes  with  him  to  take  down  his 
speeches  exactly  as  they  are  delivered.  This  stenog- 
rapher afterwards  transcribes  his  notes  and  files  the 
typewritten  copies  away.  When  enough  have  accu- 
mulated to  make  a  400-page  volume,  they  are  sent  to 
the  Government  Printing  Office  to  be  bound.  Al- 
ready President  Taft  has  more  than  20  volumes  of 
bound  speeches.  Each  of  these  volumes  contains 
nearly  twice  as  much  as  this  book. 


n. 

THE  DEPAETMENT  OF  STATE. 

The  Department  of  State  employs  the  smallest 
force  of  any  department  of  the  Federal  Government, 
but  it  is  first  in  rank  among  them,  and  its  official 
head  is  regarded  as  the  premier  of  the  Cabinet.  As 
a  rule,  when  the  President  makes  up  his  official  fam- 
ily, he  selects  the  ablest  man  he  can  get  for  the  State 
portfolio.  If  there  should  ever  come  a  time  when 
both  the  President  and  the  Vice  President  should 
die  or  in  any  other  way  become  unable  to  serve  as 
Chief  Executive,  the  Secretary  of  State  would  be- 
come President,  provided  he  were  constitutionally 
eligible  to  that  office.  Should  he  not  be  eligible,  the 
position  of  President  would  pass  to  the  next  lower 
Cabinet  officer,  and  so  on  down  the  list,  until  one  was 
found  who  did  possess  the  necessary  constitutional 
qualifications  to  become  President.  The  presiden- 
tial succession  act  was  passed  before  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  and  the  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor  were  established,  hence  there  is  no  pro- 
vision by  which  the  heads  of  these  two  departments 
could  succeed  to  the  Presidency  by  reason  of  the 
disability  of  any  Cabinet  officer  above  them. 

The  Secretary  of  State  takes  official  precedence 

35 


36         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

in  the  Cabinet,  and  usually  holds  first  position  in  in- 
fluence as  well.  There  have  been  a  few  instances, 
however,  where  he  has  yielded  first  place  in  influence 
to  the  head  of  another  department. 

The  Department  of  State  has  its  official  headquar- 
ters in  Washington,  but  the  larger  portion  of  its 
activities  are  conducted  in  other  countries.  The 
Diplomatic  and  Consular  services  represent  the  most 
important  work  of  the  department,  and  while  the 
plans  are  mapped  out  in  Washington  they  are 
largely  executed  abroad.  It  was  found  advisable 
from  the  earliest  history  of  the  American  Colonies 
to  have  representatives  in  Europe,  whose  mission  it 
was  to  look  after  the  interests  of  the  Colonies 
abroad.  Benjamin  Franklin  was  a  diplomatic  agent 
of  some  of  the  American  Colonies  before  the  Revo- 
lution. 

In  order  that  they  may  be  in  a  position  to  do  their 
most  effective  work  in  the  transaction  of  difficult  dip- 
lomatic business,  the  diplomatic  representatives  of 
the  United  States  in  foreign  countries  are  supposed 
to  keep  in  close  touch  with  the  officials  of  the  country 
to  which  they  are  accredited,  and  to  be  on  terms  of 
friendship  with  the  foreign  officials  with  whom  they 
have  to  deal. 

A  few  of  the  leading  countries  send  ambassadors 
to  Washington,  and  the  United  States  sends  officials 
of  like  rank  to  their  capitals  in  turn.  An  ambassa- 
dor is  the  personal  representative  of  the  ruler  of  the 
country  from  which  he  comes,  and  is  supposed  to 
have  the  same  standing  with  the  Government  to 
which  he  is  accredited  that  the  ruler  who  appoints 


THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE  37 

him  would  have.  A.s  the  personal  representative  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  an  American 
ambassador  is  supposed  to  have  access  at  all  times 
to  the  person  of  the  ruler  of  the  Government  to 
which  he  is  accredited. 

If  he  is  to  make  the  most  of  his  position  hemust 
be  well  fitted  for  taking  a  leading  part  in  the  social 
affairs  of  the  oflficial  set  of  the  capital  at  which  he  is 
stationed,  and  this  calls  for  expenditures  far  in  ex- 
cess of  his  salary  as  ambassador.  It  is  said  that 
Ambassador  Eeid,  in  maintaining  the  American  Em- 
bassy at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  spends  $250,000  a 
year — more  than  ten  times  his  salary.  This  means, 
of  course,  that  only  men  of  wealth  can  fill  these  im- 
portant positions. 

It  is  the  hope  of  those  who  wish  to  see  American 
citizens  eligible  to  these  positions  without  reference 
to  their  wealth,  that  the  United  States  ultimately 
will  supply  embassy  and  legation  buildings,  and  also 
funds  for  representation,  including  necessary  official 
entertaining,  etc. 

The  diplomatic  representatives  next  in  rank  are 
the  ministers,  officially  designated  as  envoys  extraor- 
dinary and  ministers  plenipotentiary.  These  are 
stationed  in  countries  which  send  ministers  rather 
than  ambassadors  to  Washington.  Their  official  res- 
idences are  known  as  legations.  Usually  a  minister 
spends  fully  as  much  as  his  salary  in  the  endless 
round  of  entertaining  which  is  regarded  as  an  essen- 
tial, although  not  official,  part  of  a  minister's  duties. 

The  Consular  Service  deals  with  problems  of  com- 
merce arising  in  foreign  countries  as  distinguished 


38         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

from  problems  of  statecraft  bandied  by  tbe  Diplo- 
matic Service.  Tliere  are  about  700  consular  officers 
of  tbe  United  States  scattered  througliout  tbe  coun- 
tries of  tbe  world.  Tbey  are  America's  lookouts  on 
tbe  watcbtowers  of  international  trade.  Few  na- 
tions enjoy  sucb  extensive  business  abroad  as  tbe 
United  States,  our  foreign  trade  now  aggregating 
more  tban  $3,000,000,000  a  year.  Tbe  men  in  tbe 
Consular  Service  are  continually  spying  out  new 
promised  lands  of  commercial  opportunity,  and 
seeking  for  every  kind  of  data  wbicb  will  enable 
tbe  American  export  business  to  continue  its 
growtb. 

Not  long  ago  a  New  England  manufacturer  of 
knives  asked  tbe  Consular  Service  for  a  list  of  retail 
dealers  in  cutlery  in  England.  He  got  tbe  list  and 
is  now  carrying  coals  to  Newcastle  by  sbipping 
American  knives  to  Sheffield.  In  anotber  case  tbe 
Department  of  State  sent  a  new  office  safe  to  a  cer- 
tain consular  office  abroad.  Since  tben  more  tban 
50  duplicates  of  tbis  safe  bave  been  ordered  from 
the  American  manufacturer  by  foreign  business  men 
wbo  saw  tbe  one  in  tbe  consular  office.  Tbe  Depart- 
ment of  State  points  witb  pride  to  tbe  success  of  tbe 
American  foreign  service  in  securing  a  single  order 
amounting  to  $23,000,000  for  battleships  and  arma- 
ment from  Argentina. 

The  office  of  consul  is  not  a  bed  of  roses.  If  a 
consul  expects  to  get  ahead,  he  must  keep  his  eyes 
open.  He  has  keen  competition  from  the  consular 
officers  of  other  Governments,  and  often  his  salary  is 
small  in  comparison  to  the  services  rendered.  There 


THE  DEPARTMENT   OF  STATE  39 

are  American  consulates  in  all  trade  centers  and 
some  in  very  remote  places.  Probably  the  most  in- 
accessible of  the  American  consulates  is  that  at 
Cliung  King,  far  back  in  the  interior  of  China,  al- 
most on  the  frontier  of  Thibet.  To  reach  it  requires 
six  weeks '  travel  from  Shanghai  by  river.  Much  of 
the  distance  is  traversed  in  a  small  river  boat,  pulled 
by  a  hundred  Chinese  coolies,  who  are  paid  a  cent  a 
day  each.  So  deep  are  some  of  the  gorges  in  this 
water  route  that  at  times  the  towing  ropes  seem  to 
stand  straight  up  in  the  air. 

Foreign  Governments  consider  the  American  Con- 
sular Service  the  best  in  the  world.  They  are  con- 
stantly using  ij;  as  an  example  of  efficiency  which 
they  would  have  their  own  consular  representatives 
emulate.  During  recent  years  there  has  been  a  de- 
termined effort  to  promote  the  efficiency  of  the  serv- 
ice. President  Cleveland  first  took  active  steps  to- 
ward applying  the  merit  system  in  the  appointment 
of  consular  representatives.  Prior  to  that  time,  con- 
sular positions  were  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  spoils 
of  political  warfare,  and  were  filled  more  for  the 
purpose  of  paying  off  political  obligations  than  with 
a  view  of  securing  the  highest  possible  type  of  men 
to  fill  them.  President  McKinley  added  strength  to 
the  policy  begun  by  his  predecessor,  and  President 
Roosevelt  in  1906  and  1907  effected  sweeping  re- 
forms, reorganizing  the  Consular  Service,  and  pro- 
viding for  comprehensive  competitive  examinations. 
His  aim  was  to  have  merit  applied,  both  with  respect 
to  appointment  and  promotion  in  the  service.  Pres- 
ident Taft  has  extended  the  same  system  of  appoint- 


40         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

ment  and  promotion  to  the  Diplomatic  Service,  up 
to  tlie  grade  of  ministers. 

In  former  years  it  was  customary  for  consular 
representatives  to  charge  fees  for  their  service. 
Under  that  system  many  positions  were  worth  a 
great  deal  to  the  incumbents.  The  consul  general- 
ship at  London  usually  paid  from  $25,000  to  $30,000 
a  year.  The  Paris  consulate  general  was  a  splendid 
berth,  and  in  exposition  years  was  worth  about 
$100,000  to  the  man  fortunate  enough  to  hold  it.  To- 
day all  fees  are  turned  into  the  United  States  Treas- 
ury, and  the  consular  officers  are  paid  specific  sala- 
ries. The  only  exception  to  this  general  statement 
is  that  consular  agents,  who  are  simply  men  who 
perform  consular  services  in  communities  where  it 
would  not  be  profitable  to  maintain  a  regular  consu- 
late, are  allowed  half  the  fees  they  collect  up  to  the 
sum  of  $1,000,  in  payment  for  the  services  they  ren- 
der. The  collections  in  consular  agencies  seldom 
exceed  $200  a  year.  The  consular  agent  is  usually 
some  established  business  man  in  his  community  who 
carries  the  agency  as  a  side  line.  The  result  is  that 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  sometimes  float  over  strange 
places.  It  has  not  been  many  years  since  the  con- 
sular agent  of  our  great  Republic  stationed  in  a 
South  American  city  had  his  office  in  a  laundry. 

Although  the  Consular  Service  has  given  a  fine 
account  of  itself  in  the  past,  it  has  done  so  largely 
in  spite  of  the  indifference  of  American  exporters  to 
ilie  necessity  of  meeting  foreign  conditions  where 
they  desire  to  build  up  an  export  trade.  The  aver- 
age American  manufacturer  seems  totally  indiffer- 


THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE         41 

ent  in  the  packing  of  goods,  and  a-s  a  result  much  of 
that  which  he  does  export  reaches  its  destination  in 
a  damaged  condition. '  On  the  Pacific  Coast  of  Latin 
America  it  seems  that  the  words,  ''handle  with 
care,"  mean  to  the  Indiana  an  equivalent  of  ''throw 
it  down  hard."  The  result  is  that  many  a  costly 
piece  of  machinery  is  broken  in  transit,  and  long  de- 
lays are  the  result.  One  may  stand  by  the  rail  on 
a  Pacific  Coast  steamer  unloading  into  lighters  and 
recognize  every  piece  of  American  goods  by  the 
character  of  its  packing.  The  Consular  Service  is 
constantly  urging  the  American  exporters  to  meet 
the  essential  conditions  of  foreign  trade,  but  largely 
without  success.  Although  the  annual  exports  now 
aggregate  more  than  $2,000,000,000,  they  are  small 
when  compared  upon  a  per  capita  basis  with  the 
exports  of  other  countries.  If  we  exported  as  much 
per  capita  as  the  people  of  the  Netherlands,  ^ve 
would  ship  $12,000,000,000  worth  of  goods  to  other 
countries  each  year.  If  we  sold  as  much  per  capita 
as  the  people  of  Belgium,  we  would  have  more  than 
five  times  as  large  an  export  trade  as  we  have  to-day. 
If  we  exported  as  much  per  capita  as  Argentina,  our 
export  trade  would  total  more  than  $5,000,000,000  a 
year. 

In  its  efforts  to  make  the  Diplomatic  and  Consu- 
lar Services  thoroughly  efficient,  a  sort  of  foreign- 
service  school  has  been  established  at  the  Depart- 
ment of  State,  and  those  receiving  appointments  at- 
tend this  school  for  at  least  30  days.  Here  they  are 
given  a  course  of  lectures  and  instructions  by  expe- 
rienced and  competent  men  upon  the  duties  of  for- 


42         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

eign  representatives.  They  learn  how  to  certify  in- 
voices; how  to  watch  out  for  would-be  smugglers  in 
their  prospective  fields  of  work;  how  to  prepare 
quarantine  paj^ers,  which  will  entitle  ships  sailing 
from  their  ports  to  land  their  passengers  in  Amer- 
ican ports;  how  to  settle  the  estates  of  Americans 
dying  abroad;  what  are  a  consul's  duties  with  re- 
spect to  the  merchant  marine,  and  what  relief  the 
law  requires  a  consul  to  afford  to  stranded  sailors 
in  foreign  ports. 

The  activities  of  a  consulate  cover  a  wide  range. 
Consuls  usually  keep  a  complete  list  of  all  American 
citizens  residing  either  temporarily  or  permanently 
in  their  jurisdiction ;  their  offices  serve  as  post  offices 
for  traveling  Americans;  and  they  do  everything 
within  their  power  to  assist  their  fellow  citizens 
abroad.  They  make  extensive  reports  to  the  Gov- 
ernment at  Washington  concerning  all  sorts  of  com- 
mercial opportunities,  and  this  information  is  placed 
on  file  or  published,  as  conditions  may  warrant,  and 
is  put  at  the  disposal  of  every  interested  American. 

There  are  a  great  many  matters  in  which  the  De- 
partment of  State  comes  into  direct  contact  with 
individual  citizens.  When  Americans  are  deprived 
of  their  treaty  rights  abroad,  or  those  of  aliens  are 
infringed  upon  in  the  United  States,  the  department 
conducts  the  resulting  international  correspondence. 
If  a  zealous  constable  should  happen  to  arrest  a  for- 
eign diplomat  for  an  infraction  of  the  speed  law  of 
some  small  American  village,  the  matter  would  be 
taken  up  and  satisfactorily  adjusted  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  State.    If  an  American  residing  in  some 


THE  DEPAETMENT  OF  STATE         43 

foreign  country  finds  himself  being  deprived  of  his 
property  or  his  liberty  unlawfully,  he  appeals  to  the 
department  to  protect  his  rights.  When  Congress 
wishes  information  about  any  sort  of  conditions  in 
foreign  countries,  the  department  acts  as  its  agent 
in  gathering  it.  Likewise,  when  any  foreign  Gov- 
ernment wishes  to  know  anything  about  American 
railroad  or  banking  systems,  American  marriage 
and  divorce  laws,  or  other  matters,  it  appeals  to  the 
Department  of  State  for  the  data  it  desires.  When 
cases  are  tried  in  the  courts  of  one  country  and  tes- 
timony is  desired  from  another  country,  it  issues  the 
letters  rogatory  through  which  it  is  secured. 

The  department,  under  the  direction  of  the  Presi- 
dent, negotiates  all  treaties,  attends  to  all  matters 
of  extradition,  and  has  charge  of  all  foreign  and 
international  tariff  relations.  When  an  American 
or  a  foreigner  commits  murder  abroad  and  flees  to 
the  United  States,  the  department  issues  the  papers 
which  enable  him  to  be  taken  back  for  trial.  Like- 
wise when  a  murderer  in  America  flees  to  a  foreign 
country  the  Department  of  State  acts  as  the  agent 
of  the  American  courts  in  bringing  him  back. 

All  matters  pertaining  to  the  American  end  of 
international  conferences  and  congresses  are  ar- 
ranged through  the  Department  of  State.  Various 
institutions,  such  as  missionary  societies,  have  their 
protection  assured  through  its  labors,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  establishment  of  schools,  hospitals,  and  the 
like.  The  department  maintains  a  record  of  the 
marriage  of  all  American  citizens  abroad,  when  per- 
formed in  the  presence  of  American  consuls,  and 


44         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

also  of  all  American  children  born  abroad.  Many 
Americans  use  the  agencies  of  the  Department  of 
State  to  ascertain  the  whereabouts  or  fate  of  friends 
and  relatives  who  have  dropped  out  of  sight.  For 
instance,  an  electrical  engineer  goes  to  South  Amer- 
ica and  his  friends  lose  track  of  him.  When  they 
appeal  to  the  department  it  uses  its  entire  machinery 
in  the  effort  to  locate  the  missing  man. 

The  Department  of  State  has  charge  of  the  pub- 
lication and  distribution  of  the  laws  of  Congress,  so 
as  to  make  them  accessible  to  all  men  and  to  fore- 
stall any  excuse  for  the  plea  of  ignorance  of  the  law. 
When  an  amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution  is 
adopted,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Department  of 
State  to  promulgate  it,  and  its  Secretary  proclaims 
the  admission  of  new  States  into  the  Union.  He  is 
also  a  medium  of  correspondence  between  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  governors  of  the  several  States.  He 
has  custody  of  the  Great  Seal  of  the  United  States, 
which  he  afiixes  to  all  Executive  proclamations,  to 
various  commissions,  and  to  warrants  for  the  extra- 
dition of  fugitives  from  justice.  The  original  copies 
of  all  lavv's  in  force  in  the  United  States  are  filed  with 
him  for  permanent  keeping. 

The  card  index  of  the  Department  of  State  covers 
diplomatic  matters  and  all  matters  in  which  the  Con- 
sular Service  has  a  hand  as  well.  Through  this  in- 
dex the  State  Department  officials  have  at  their  fin- 
ger-tips a  million  things  which,  without  it,  would  be 
needles  in  haystacks  of  voluminous  records.  The 
smallest  and  seemingly  the  most  insignificant  matter 
of  to-day  may  affect  the  diplomacy  of  the  world  a 


1 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE         45 

decade  hence.  It  is  important  that  information  con- 
cerning these  things  be  filed  away,  and  equally  im- 
portant that  it  be  made  readily  accessible  when 
needed.  That  the  volume  of  this  information  is 
large  is  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  it  has  required 
nearly  half  a  million  cards  to  index  the  matter  accu- 
mulated m  four  years.  That  it  covers  a  wide  range 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  may  relate  to  an  inter- 
national situation  affecting  all  of  the  Governments 
of  the  earth,  or  to  the  registration  of  the  marriage 
of  John  Smith  and  Susie  Brown  in  Paris  or  Singa- 
pore. 

This  index  also  serves  as  a  sort  of  diplomatic 
' '  who 's  who ' '  of  the  world.  For  instance,  when  any 
other  nation  appoints  one  of  its  citizens  on  a  board 
or  court  of  arbitration,  it  is  very  desirable  for  the 
United  States  to  know  the  antecedents  of  that  per- 
son, and  to  be  sure  that  he  is  fitted  for  such  a  posi- 
tion. The  Department  of  State  needs  only  to  look 
at  its  card  index  to  determine  this  matter.  Again, 
when  another  country  sends  an  ambassador  or  a 
minister  to  "Washington,  it  is  essential  that  the 
United  States  should  know  whether  or  not  he  will  be 
persona  grata.  Here  again  the  great  card  index 
answers  all  questions. 

The  Department  of  State  possesses  the  only  fund 
in  the  administration  of  which  no  accounting  to  the 
people  of  the  country  is  required.  Tliis  is  known  as 
the  contingent  fund,  and  amounts  to  about  $100,000 
a  year.  It  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the 
Secretary  of  State  to  keep  a  close  watch  on  affairs 
in  other  nations,  in  order  that  the  United  States  may 


46         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

at  all  times  be  apprised  of  any  foreign  developments 
wliicli  might  affect  its  interests.  If  the  Secretary- 
were  required  to  present  an  itemized  statement  of 
the  expenditures  of  this  fund  to  Congress  and  to 
the  people  of  the  country,  there  would  be  no  means 
of  keeping  this  work  secret,  and  that  fact  alone  might 
result  in  foreign  complications.  Another  charge 
against  this  fund  is  the  expense  of  entertaining  the 
guests  of  the  Nation.  When  a  foreign  dignitary 
like  Admiral  Togo  visits  this  country,  he  is  made 
the  guest  of  the  Nation,  and  representatives  of  the 
President  and  the  Department  of  State  are  among 
those  who  welcome  him.  It  is  intended  to  have  a 
suite  of  apartments  in  the  new  State  Department 
Building  where  these  honored  guests  may  be  quar- 
tered during  their  stay  in  the  Nation's  Capital. 


III. 

THE  TEEASUEY. 

The  Treasury  Department  of  the  United  States 
Government  handles  more  money  than  any  other  one 
institution  on  earth.  As  the  national  tax  collector, 
as  the  supervisor  of  the  national-banking  system,  as 
the  conservor  of  the  national  credit,  and  as  the  guar- 
dian of  the  financial  resources  of  the  country,  the 
Treasury  Department  occupies  a  position  of  unique 
importance. 

The  Treasury  Department  collects  all  taxes  levied 
by  Congress  for  the  support  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, and  expends  the  money  thus  collected  upon  the 
order  of  Congress.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
as  the  head  of  the  department,  at  the  beginning  of 
each  regular  annual  session  of  Congress  advises  that 
body  what  amount  of  money  will  be  needed  for  the 
operation  of  the  governmental  machine  for  the  next 
fiscal  year,  giving  his  estimates  in  detail. 

The  department  not  only  acts  as  the  fiscal  agent 
of  the  Government,  but  it  has  direct  control  of  the 
currency  of  the  Nation,  mints  its  coins,  prints  its 
paper  money  and  its  postage  and  revenue  stamps, 
and  protects  the  people  from  counterfeiters. 

Other  activities   of  the   department  include  the 

47 


48         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

maintGiiance  of  a  fleet  of  armed  vessels  for  the  sup- 
pression of  smuggling  and  the  enforcement  of  the 
quarantine  laws,  the  Life-Saving  Service,  the  Public 
Health  and  Marine-Hospital  Service,  the  construc- 
tion and  maintenance  of  all  public  buildings,  and  the 
audit  and  control  of  the  accounts  of  the  other  execu- 
tive departments  of  the  Government. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  the  work  of  this  de- 
partment is  that  of  making  money.  For  the  making 
of  its  paper  money  it  maintains  an  establishment 
known  as  the  Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing, 
in  which  an  average  of  fully  a  million  dollars  a  day 
is  printed.  The  paper  used  is  of  the  toughest  linen, 
made  by  a  secret  process.  The  flax  from  which  it 
comes  may  once  have  been  the  garments  of  babes, 
the  confirmation  robes  of  children,  or  the  graduation 
gowns  of  girls.  After  it  reaches  the  rag  bag  it  goes 
to  the  paper  makers.  Perhaps  it  comes  back  as 
money  and  dowers  the  bride  who  wore  it  as  a  baby. 

The  plates  from  which  money  is  printed  are  made 
with  the  most  exacting  care.  The  public  is  not  per- 
mitted to  see  the  engravers  at  work,  nor  does  any 
or.G  engraver  prepare  a  whole  plate.  It  usually 
takes  about  a  year  of  continuous  work  to  complete 
one  of  the  original  plates.  The  money  is  nev(-r 
printed  from  these  originals,  but  by  duplicates  made 
from  them  by  a  mechanical  process.  If  this  were  not 
so  it  would  be  practically  impossible  to  detect  coun- 
terfeiting. The  fine  lines  on  the  paper  money  were 
made  upon  the  original  plates  by  a  geometric  ma- 
chine which  has  as  many  combinations  as  the  best 
safe  lock,  each  combination  producing  a  different 


THE   TEEASURY  49 

design.  Until  the  appearance  of  the  counterfeit 
Monroe  head  hundred-dollar  bill  in  1897,  it  was 
thought  that  these  lines  could  not  be  imitated.  The 
portrait  on  a  bill  is  regarded  as  the  best  guarantee 
against  counterfeiting. 

One  of  the  most  thorough  systems  of  accounting 
in  the  world  has  been  installed  to  insure  the  Govern- 
ment against  loss  during  the  process  of  printing. 
Out  of  the  million  or  more  dollars  of  paper  currency 
printed  every  working  day  in  the  year,  only  one 
piece  of  paper  went  astray  in  15  years.  The  officials 
of  the  bureau  were  morally  certain  that  this  was 
lost,  but  the  workmen  in  the  room  where  it  disap- 
peared had  to  pay  its  printed  value.  Each  bill  con- 
tains many  symbols  which  tell  the  initiated  what 
plate  it  was  printed  from,  who  engraved  the  plate, 
who  printed  the  bill,  and  the  like.  It  requires  about 
30  days  to  complete  the  intricate  processes  of  getting 
a  piece  of  paper  money  ready  for  circulation,  during 
which  time  it  is  counted  more  than  50  times.  It 
costs  the  Government  about  l^j  cents  to  issue  and 
redeem  each  note,  and  less  than  one-fifth  of  1  per 
cent  to  maintain  the  paper  circulation  of  the  country. 

One-half  of  1  per  cent  of  the  money  going  out 
never  gets  back.  Uncle  Sam  is  the  gainer  every  time 
a  piece  of  paper  money  is  lost,  for  he  will  never  be 
under  the  necessity  of  redeeming  it  with  good  hard 
gold.  He  maintains  a  force  in  the  redemption  bu- 
reau where  torn,  burned,  or  otherwise  damaged  cur- 
rency may  be  redeemed.  If  three-fifths  of  a  dam- 
aged note  is  sent  in,  the  bill  may  be  redeemed  at  face 
value;  if  less  than  three-fifths  and  more  than  two- 


50         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

fifths  be  sent,  half  vakie  will  be  given.  Any  part 
less  than  three-fifths  is  not  redeemable  unless  proof 
be  brought  in  showing  that  the  rest  was  destroyed. 
From  the  San  Francisco  fire  came  many  charred 
notes,  a  majority  of  which  were  redeemed,  while  bits 
of  cloth  taken  from  a  cow's  stomach,  and  tiny  shreds 
of  green  and  yellow  paper  from  a  thrashing  ma- 
chine have  proved  to  be  redeemable  currency  when 
brought  under  the  keen  eyes  of  Government  experts. 

The  average  life  of  paper  money  in  the  United 
States  is  less  than  three  years.  The  low  denomina- 
tion silver  certificates  get  into  the  macerator,  the 
machine  with  which  worn-out  money  is  destroyed, 
and  which  chews  up  a  million  dollars  at  a  mouthful, 
in  one  and  one-half  years  after  they  start  their 
rounds  of  the  pocketbooks  of  the  country.  Treasury 
notes  reach  their  allotted  term  of  life  in  two  years, 
while  the  average  yellow-back  gold  certificate  is  able 
to  continue  its  travels  for  three  years.  The  largest 
piece  of  paper  money  printed  is  the  ten-thousand- 
dollar  note.  Four  thousand  of  these  were  issued,  of 
which  only  641  have  ever  come  back  for  redemption. 
Notes  of  the  thousand-dollar  denomination  are 
highly  prized  by  the  big  banks,  as  they  occupy  very 
little  space  in  the  vaults  and  are  easily  counted. 
Twelve  pounds  of  ten-thousand-dollar  notes  would 
take  the  place  of  2,000  tons  of  silver  in  a  bank  vault. 

The  seal  which  appears  on  the  paper  money  of  the 
United  States  is  a  relic  of  days  antedating  the  Con- 
stitution. The  words  abbreviated  are  "Thesauri 
American!  Septentrionalis  Sigillum."  In  English 
these  words  mean  "seal  of  the  Treasury  of  North 


THE   TREASURY  51 

America."  To  the  well  informed  in  history  this 
tells  of  a  time  in  American  events  when  it  was  hoped 
that  Canada  would  become  a  part  of  the  United 
States.  The  die  from  which  the  present  seals  are 
made  was  prepared  in  1849. 

The  processes  of  coining  metallic  money  are  no 
less  interesting  than  those  of  making  paper  money. 
Anyone  may  take  gold  to  the  United  States  Mint 
and  have  it  coined.  After  the  metal  has  been  assayed 
to  ascertain  its  degree  of  purity,  it  is  next  put 
through  a  process  which  removes  all  foreign  mate- 
rial from  it.  As  pure  gold  would  be  too  soft  for 
money,  an  alloy  is  then  added  to  give  it  the  proper 
degree  of  hardness.  It  is  next  put  through  what  is 
known  as  an  annealing  process,  in  which  it  is  run  be- 
tween roll-ers,  heated  and  worked  over  again,  and  put 
through  rollers  once  more,  until  it  becomes  a  thin 
bar  of  gold.  This  in  turn  is  put  through  a  giant 
stamping  machine,  which  acts  like  a  huge  cake  cut- 
ter, cutting  hundreds  of  little  golden  cookies  out  of 
the  bars  of  gold.  These  little  golden  cakes  are  next 
put  into  a  huge  squeezing  machine,  with  engraved 
dies  above  and  below  them,  and  are  squeezed  with  a 
pressure  of  275  tons.  When  they  come  out  they 
are  money.  The  same  process  is  used  in  the  making 
of  silver,  nickel,  and  copper  coin. 

The  Government  makes  a  profit  on  all  coins  except 
those  of  gold.  The  difference  between  the  actual 
value  of  the  metal  in  a  coin  and  the  face  value  of  the 
coin  is  known  as  seigniorage.  The  metal  in  a  1-cent 
piece  is  worth  only  a  small  fraction  of  its  face  value. 
The  remainder  represents  a  clear  profit  to  the  Gov- 


52         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

ernment.  Every  time  a  coin  is  lost  Uncle  Sam 
makes  the  difference  between  its  actual  value  and 
its  face  value.  How  many  of  these  get  lost  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  although  the  little  half-cent  pieces 
that  were  issued  many  years  ago  are  very  seldom 
seen  nowadays,  over  8,000,000  have  never  been  re- 
turned to  the  Treasury.  It  is  estimated  that  6,000,- 
000  of  these  have  been  lost  forever.  The  2-  and 
3-cent  pieces  are  also  unusually  scare,  and  yet  more 
than  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  them  have  never 
come  back  to  the  Treasury. 

One  of  fhe  most  interesting  bureaus  under  the 
Treasury  Department  is  that  known  as  the  Secret 
Service.  Its  main  work  is  to  guard  the  currency  of 
the  country  against  counterfeiting.  It  is  said  that 
the  best  guardians  of  the  currency  are  the  tellers 
in  the  banks,  and  that  more  than  nine-tenths  of  all 
the  counterfeit  money  discovered  in  circulation  is 
detected  by  them.  The  counterfeiter  of  to-day  takes 
advantage  of  every  modern  process  in  his  work,  and 
by  using  photomechanical  methods  is  able  to  produce 
results  that  can  be  detected  only  by  the  skilled 
handler  of  money.  How  comparatively  little  coun- 
terfeit money  there  is  in  circulation  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  out  of  some  $3,000,000,000  which  passed 
through  the  hands  of  Treasury  officials,  less  than 
$12,000  worth  of  bad  money  was  found.  After  the 
spurious  money  is  detected,  it  becomes  the  duty  of 
the  Secret  Service  to  run  down  its  makers.  This 
often  requires  a  vast  amount  of  patience  and  keen 
detective  work  on  the  part  of  the  Secret  Service 
officials. 


THE  TREASURY  53 

There  are  cases  on  record  where  counterfeit  coins 
are  worth  more  than  those  which  they  imitate.  In 
former  times  platinum,  which  has  about  the  same 
weight  as  gold,  was  worth  only  one-third  as  much 
as  the  yellow  metal.  The  counterfeiter  sawed  the 
real  coin  into  three  sections,  substituting  for  the 
middle  section  of  gold  a  layer  of  platinum.  A  mill- 
ing machine  and  a  little  soldering  did  the  rest.  Since 
those  days  platinum  has  increased  tremendously  in 
value,  and  a  counterfeit  coin  of  this  kind  now  is 
worth  more  than  the  genuine.  A  band  of  counter- 
feiters in  Mexico  coined  a  lot  of  silver  dollars.  When 
these  were  discovered  it  was  found  that  they  con- 
tained $1.09  worth  of  metal  each.  There  was  a 
streak  of  gold  in  the  silver,  and  they  did  not  know  it. 

The  United  States  Government  recognizes  the  fact 
that  the  moving-picture  show  may  prove  an  incen- 
tive to  crime,  and  prohibits  the  display  of  films  show- 
ing the  processes  of  counterfeiting.  Not  long  ago 
such  a  film  was  exhibited,  and  the  Secret  Service 
insisted  that  it  be  destroyed.  Men  have  sometimes 
been  arrested  for  passing  real  money.  Not  long  ago 
a  traveler  offered  a  hundred-dollar  note  with  a  red 
back  in  payment  of  a  hotel  bill.  He  was  arrested 
for  attempting  to  pass  spurious  money.  The  bill 
turned  out  to  have  been  a  gold  certificate  of  1866. 
There  is  another  note  in  circulation  printed  only  on 
one  side,  which  not  one  man  in  a  thousand  would 
cash  for  a  stranger.  It  is  the  compound-interest 
note  of  1864,  and  is  worth  much  more  than  its  face 
value. 

The  major  portion  of  the  revenues  of  the  Federal 


54         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Government  is  collected  by  the  customs  and  internal 
revenue  bureaus  of  the  Treasury  Department.  Since 
the  foundation  of  the  Government,  approximately 
$10,000,000,000  have  come  into  the  Treasury 
through  the  customhouses  of  the  country.  Two- 
thirds  of  all  the  customs  business  of  the  United 
States  is  transacted  at  the  port  of  New  York,  where 
it  costs  2  cents  to  collect  each  dollar  of  customs 
duties.  There  are  a  number  of  other  customhouses, 
usually  located  at  important  cities  along  the  coast 
and  along  the  frontiers,  while  others  are  found  at 
smaller  towns.  At  Beaufort,  N.  C,  it  costs  $1,500  to 
collect  $1.55,  and  at  a  Maryland  port  it  costs  $1,000 
to  collect  61  cents. 

Elaborate  precautions  are  taken  to  prevent  the 
smuggling  into  the  United  States  of  goods  properly 
subject  to  tariff  duties.  Men  conceal  diamonds  in 
secret  holes  in  the  heels  of  their  shoes,  women  con- 
vert their  bodies  into  hugh  spools  for  rare  laces  and 
silks,  or  sew  Chicago  or  New  York  tags  on  Paris 
gowns  in  order  to  escape  the  payment  of  duties; 
while  vessel  owners  sometimes  attempt  to  land  duti- 
able goods  at  places  where  there  are  no  custom- 
houses. The  Secret  Service  keeps  a  card  index  of 
every  known  smuggler  in  the  world,  and  closely  fol- 
lows his  movements.  Reports  of  all  big  purchases 
of  jewels  or  other  valuables  abroad  are  made  to  the 
Treasury  Department  by  its  foreign  agents,  and  its 
officers  keep  watch  for  these  goods  on  every  ship 
that  comes  into  port. 

The  tariff  laws  of  the  country  afford  many  anoma- 
lies.   For    instance,  pearls  come  into  the  United 


THE  TREASURY  55 

States  as  precious  stones,  dutiable  at  10  per  cent, 
when  unstrung.  Wlien  strung,  they  are  passed  as 
jewelry,  dutiable  at  60  per  cent.  Some  years  ago 
there  was  a  steady  importation  of  pearls  and  the 
customs  authorities  concluded  they  were  to  be  used 
as  a  single  strand.  The  authorities  held  that  the 
mere  presence  or  absence  of  a  string  did  not  deter- 
mine whether  they  were  strung  or  unstrung  pearls, 
but  that  the  determining  factor  was  whether  or  not 
they  had  been  selected  and  matched  for  the  purpose 
of  making  them  into  a  string  of  pearls.  Upon  this 
theory  they  levied  on  them  a  duty  of  $110,000.  The 
importer  carried  the  case  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
which  decided  that  he  should  pay  only  $18,000.  Thus 
the  absence  of  a  string  saved  the  importer  $92,000. 
Another  anomaly  is  the  fact  that  a  piece  of  goods 
at  the  customhouse  may  be  linen  to-day  and  cotton 
to-morrow.  The  law  provides  that  textiles  shall  be 
rated  according  to  the  ingredients  of  principal  value 
in  them.  In  the  fluctuations  of  the  market  the  linen 
in  a  piece  of  mixed  goods  may  be  worth  more  than 
the  cotton  in  it  to-day,  while  to-morrow  the  cotton 
may  be  worth  more  than  the  linen.  So  to-day  it  will 
come  into  the  United  States  as  a  piece  of  linen  and 
to-morrow  as  a  piece  of  cotton. 

The  Internal  Revenue  Bureau  is  the  second  best 
tax  collector  the  United  States  has.  Its  receipts 
amount  to  several  hundred  million  dollars  a  year. 
This  bureau  was  organized  in  the  early  history  of 
the  Government,  and  in  1791  a  tax  of  from  7  to  18 
cents  a  gallon  was  levied  on  whisky.  This  tax  led 
to  the  first  threatened  civil  war  in  America.    The 


56         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

distillers  of  western  Pennsylvania  did  not  fancy  pay- 
ing it,  and  began  what  is  known  as  "the  Whisky 
Rebellion."  The  present  tax  is  $1.10  a  gallon,  and 
this  tends  to  make  moonshining  a  profitable  business. 
There  are  no  braver  men  in  the  Government  service 
than  the  revenue  agents  whose  duty  it  is  to  seek  out 
and  bring  moonshiners  to  justice.  The  revenue 
agent  who  is  seeking  an  illicit  still  must  look  for  it  in 
all  guises  and  forms.  Some  years  ago  there  was 
evidence  of  illicit  whisky  in  a  certain  community, 
and  the  only  clew  to  the  place  of  manufacture  was 
in  the  fact  that  in  a  certain  piece  of  woodland  the 
soot  was  thicker  on  the  leaves  of  the  north  side  of 
the  tree  than  it  was  on  those  on  the  south  side.  After 
a  prolonged  search  the  revenue  agents  discovered 
traces  of  smoke  issuing  from  a  knot-hole  in  a  hollow 
tree.  It  developed  that  this  tree  stood  over  a  cave, 
and  was  used  as  a  chimney  for  the  still. 

The  national-banking  system  of  the  United  States, 
comprising  nearly  8,000  banks,  is  under  the  control 
of  the  Treasury  Department.  The  capital  of  these 
banks  aggregates  nearly  a  billion  dollars,  and  their 
surplus  nearly  seven  hundred  million.  They  have 
outstanding  loans  and  discounts  amounting  to  more 
than  $5,000,000,000,  and  their  total  deposits  aggre- 
gate as  much  more.  Much  of  the  money  in  circula- 
tion in  the  United  States  consists  of  national-bank 
notes.  These  are  printed  by  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment and  sent  to  the  national  banks,  where  the  presi- 
dent and  the  cashier  sign  them  and  they  become  full- 
fledged  pieces  of  paper  money.  The  bank  is  required 
to  deposit  with  the  Treasury  Department  Govern- 


THE  TREASURY  57 

ment  bonds  equal  to  the  amouiit  of  the  notes  issued 
to  guarantee  the  redemption  of  these  notes. 

Although  the  national  banks  of  the  country  play- 
such  a  large  part  in  its  fiscal  affairs,  only  one-third 
of  the  money  on  deposit  in  the  banks  of  the  United 
States  is  carried  in  the  national  banks.  In  other' 
words,  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  $15,000,- 
000,000  to  their  credit  in  the  banks  of  the  country. 
There  is  a  total  of  only  slightly  more  than  $3,000,- 
000,000  of  money  in  circulation  upon  any  given  date. 
A  large  percentage  of  this  is  in  the  pockets  of  the 
people.  It  will  be  seen  that,  upon  an  average,  every 
dollar  of  the  three  billion  is  deposited  to  the  credit 
of  five  different  people. 

The  Supervising  Architect  of  the  Treasury  De- 
partment has  charge  of  the  erection  and  maintenance 
of  the  public  buildings  authorized  by  Congress.  He 
selects  the  sites,  secures  the  necessary  cession  of 
jurisdiction  by  the  States  affected,  prepares  esti- 
mates and  drawings,  and  has  general  oversight  of 
the  preliminaries  in  the  construction  of  these  build- 
ings. 

One  of  the  most  powerful  officials  in  the  Govern- 
ment service  is  the  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury. 
He  is  charged  with  the  duty  of  revising  all  accounts 
upon  appeal  from  settlements  made  by  the  auditors 
for  the  various  departments.  "Whenever  any  ques- 
tion with  reference  to  appropriations  is  raised,  it  is 
referred  to  the  comptroller,  and  his  verdict  as  to 
what  the  appropriation  laws  mean  can  not  be  re- 
versed. It  was  the  comptroller  who  decided  the 
famous  question  of  whether  a  tip  is  legal  or  not. 


58        THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

He  lias  expressed  his  opinion  that  a  tip  of  25  cents 
to  a  Pullman  porter  for  a  day's  ride  is  warranted  by 
law  as  a  part  of  traveling  expenses. 

Thus  the  Treasury  Department  includes  in  the 
range  of  its  activities  every  financial  function  of  the 
United  States,  from  coining  money  to  tipping  Pull- 
man porters. 


IV. 

THE  AKMY. 

'Although  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  revenues 
of  the  United  States  Government  is  expended  in  pre- 
paring for  future  wars  and  on  account  of  wars  of  the 
past,  this  large  expenditure  is  not  reflected  by  the 
size  of  the  United  States  Army.  In  the  Eegular 
Army  at  the  present  time  there  are  4,939  officers  and 
82,685  enhsted  men,  which  includes  the  180  officers 
and  5,732  enlisted  men  composing  the  Philippine 
Scouts.  The  authorized  strength  of  the  Eegular 
Army  is  not  to  exceed  100,000  men.  Both  the  Eegu- 
lar and  the  Militia  regiments  are  maintained  on  a 
peace  footing  at  a  little  over  half  war  strength.  As 
the  Orgajiized  Militia  embraces  about  120,000  officers 
and  men,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  would  require  a  re- 
serve of  about  200,000  men  to  bring  all  of  the  regi- 
ments of  the  Eegular  Army  and  Organized  Militia 
up  to  their  war  strength.  Only  about  one  man  to 
each  four  hundred  and  fifty  people  in  the  United 
States  is  numbered  in  the  organized  forces  of  the 
American  Military  Establishment.  The  unorganized 
militia  consists  of  more  than  16,000,000  men,  which 
embraces  every  able-bodied  man  in  the  United  States 
between  the  ages  of  18  and  44. 

59 


60         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Although  it  does  not  take  as  long  to  recruit  and 
equip  a  strong  army  as  it  does  to  build  a  naval  fleet 
and  put  it  into  commission  manned  by  an  efficient 
personnel,  it  does  take  a  considerable  period  of  time 
to  bring  such  an  army  up  to  a  standard  which  makes 
it  an  efficient  fighting  force.  The  country  is  com- 
mencing to  realize  the  importance  of  establishing  in 
time  of  peace  an  organization  from  which  an  efficient 
army  can  be  quickly  made  in  time  of  war,  and  with 
this  end  in  view  a  provisional  field  army  has  been 
established  in  the  New  England  States  and  New 
York.  The  National  Guard  and  regular  troops  have 
been  grouped  into  what  is  known  as  the  First  Pro- 
visional Field  Army.  The  Commanding  General, 
Department  of  the  East,  is  its  commander.  The 
Organized  Militia  and  Regular  Army,  while  furnish- 
ing a  very  considerable  portion  of  the  troops  needed 
for  this  army,  are  not  adequate  to  furnish  certain 
technical  troops,  nor  is  the  quota  of  Field  Artillery 
or  Cavalry  sufficient.  A  serious  effort  is  being  made 
to  organize  additional  field  artillery  and  cavalry 
organizations  in  the  militia,  and  to  organize  and 
train  certain  technical  troops,  such  as  sanitary 
troops,  engineer  troops,  signal  troops,  etc.,  and  to 
provide  reserve  supplies  of  clothing,  transportation, 
guns,  ammunition,  etc.  The  policy  will  probably  be 
carried  out  throughout  the  United  States  and  a  cer- 
tain number  of  provisional  field  armies  organized 
and  reserve  supplies  gradually  accumulated.  The 
great  shortage  in  the  Army  to-day  is  in  Field  Artil- 
lery guns  and  ammunition. 

The  task  of  provisioning  the  Regular  Army  is  no 


TROOPERS  AT  FORT  MYER. 


THE  AEMY  61 

small  one.  The  commissary  department  issues  30,- 
000,000  rations  a  year.  Each  of  these  costs  approxi- 
mately 21  cents.  For  an  army  of  100,000  men,  there 
is  required  (for  each  day's  rations)  50  tons  of  meat, 
50  tons  of  bread,  50  tons  of  potatoes,  and  40  tons  of 
other  food.  Experience  has  taught  that  the  feeding 
of  an  army  is  one  of  the  first  essentials  to  its  effi- 
ciency in  the  field,  and  the  War  Department  is  using 
every  possible  facility  for  insuring  good  food  for  the 
soldiers  in  the  service. 

The  recruiting  service  of  the  Army  is  a  busy  one, 
even  in  times  of  peace,  and  if  Uncle  Sam  does  not 
get  good  soldiers  it  is  not  because  he  has  lack  of  ap- 
plications for  service  in  the  Army.  In  a  recent  year 
134,000  such  applications  for  enlistment  were  re- 
ceived. Of  these  125,000  were  attracted  by  adver- 
tising. The  Adjutant  General  keeps  a  card  index  in 
which  is  recorded  full  data  about  the  Army  service 
and  the  men  who  constitute  it.  This  index  now  con- 
tains nearly  60,000,000  individual  cards,  8,000,000  of 
them  being  medical  cards,  giving  the  history  of  all 
cases  of  sickness  in  the  Army. 

When  a  soldier  enlists  in  Uncle  Sam's  Army  he 
is  assured  that  he  will  receive  the  best  possible  med- 
ical attention,  which  is  provided  free  of  charge.  The 
medical  department  of  the  Army  consists  of  hun- 
dreds of  graduate  physicians  who  are  appointed 
after  competitive  examinations.  If  a  soldier  is  only 
slightly  indisposed,  he  is  treated  by  the  post  medical 
officers  and  is  furnished  with  medicine  at  the  regular 
dispensaries  free  of  charge.  If  his  ailment  is  more 
serious,  he  is  sent  to  a  hospital,  and  the  Army  hos- 


62         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

pital  has  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  most  san- 
itary and  best  conducted  in  the  world. 

Humanity  owes  a  vast  debt  to  the  Army  medical 
officer.  Many  of  the  most  valuable  lessons  learned 
by  medical  science  during  the  past  20  years  have 
been  taught  by  him.  For  instance,  the  mosquito 
theory  of  the  transmission  of  yellow  fever  was 
proved  by  a  board  of  American  medical  officers  con- 
sisting of  Drs.  Reed,  Carroll,  and  Lazear.  The  sup- 
port given  them  by  Gen.  Leonard  Wood  resulted  in 
the  sanitary  triumph  of  the  American  occupation  in 
Cuba.  Later  this  work  bore  fruit  in  the  even  greater 
achievements  of  making  possible  the  digging  of  the 
Panama  Canal.  The  use  of  vaccination  for  the  pre- 
vention of  typhoid  fever  was  borrowed  from  the 
British  Army  surgeon,  but  it  has  been  pushed  fur- 
ther by  the  American  Army  surgeon  than  by  the 
British.  In  the  last  mobilization  of  the  American 
Army  there  were  only  two  cases  of  typhoid  fever 
among  24,000  men,  one  a  teamster  who  avoided  the 
prophylactic,  and  the  other  a  man  who  had  developed 
typhoid  before  he  had  been  vaccinated.  This  is  a 
record  without  parallel  in  the  medical  history  of  any 
army.  So  thoroughly  has  the  theory  of  sanitation 
been  mastered  that  there  are  now  less  than  one-thir- 
teenth as  many  admissions  to  the  Navy  and  Army 
hospitals  on  account  of  malaria  as  there  were  13 
years  ago. 

Although  some  other  Governments  spend  large 
sums  in  the  encouragement  of  rifle  practice,  the 
American  people  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
that  in  both  team  and  individual  marksmanship  their 


THE  ARMY  63 

soldiers  and  sailors  stand  at  the  head  of  every  list. 
Almost  every  international  trophy  to  be  competed 
for  is  now  in  their  keeping. 

A  new  device  has  been  invented  for  teaching 
schoolboys  marksmanship  without  danger  to  them- 
selves. It  is  known  as  the  subtarget  machine.  No 
ammunition  is  used  with  it ;  the  boy  simply  aims  the 
gun  and  pulls  the  trigger,  and  a  needle-like  rod  reg- 
isters on  a  minute  target  the  point  where  the  bullet 
would  have  struck  on  a  regulation  target  had  the 
gun  been  loaded.  This  machine  is  not  a  toy,  but  has 
been  adopted  by  many  militia  companies,  and  sev- 
eral thousand  are  in  use  in  the  French  Army.  After 
the  schoolboys  are  taught  to  take  accurate  aim  in 
this  way,  they  are  put  to  work  with  22-caliber  rifles 
having  the  same  weight  and  sight  as  the  regulation 
Army  rifle.  After  indoor  practice  with  these  has 
made  the  schoolboys  proficient  in  the  handling  of 
guns,  they  are  then  taken  to  the  rifle  ranges  and 
started  in  regular  practice.  It  has  been  calculated 
by  Army  statisticians  that  for  every  man  hit  in  bat- 
tle by  small  arms,  there  are  from  3,000  to  5,000  shots 
fired. 

The  Ordnance  Bureau  of  the  War  Department  has 
charge  of  the  work  of  providing  the  Army  with  all 
its  munitions  of  war,  from  the  big  14-inch  coast- 
defense  gim  down  to  the  cartridges  for  an  Army 
rifle.  The  heaviest  guns  weigh  as  much  as  a  railroad 
engine  and  shoot  a  projectile  weighing  as  much  as 
10  ordinary  men.  The  machine  guns  can  fire  eight 
rifle  bullets  in  a  second.  No  battleship  can  resist 
the  concentrated  fire  of  modern  coast-defense  guns. 


64         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

It  has  become  only  a  question  of  marksmanship,  and 
the  American  coast  defenders  have  solved  that  prob- 
lem by  becoming  the  best  marksmen  in  the  world. 
They  are  now  provided  with  60-foot  moving  targets, 
and  the  troops  at  Fort  Hancock,  N.  J.,  some  months 
ago  scored  four  shots  in  less  than  a  minute  with  a 
battery  of  two  guns.  All  four  shots  struck  in  a  rec- 
tangle of  24  by  53  feet.  The  target  was  4  miles 
away,  and  was  traveling  5I/2  miles  an  hour.  With 
such  firing  as  this,  it  would  be  impossible  for  any 
foreign  fleet  to  pass  through  the  Narrows  below 
New  York. 

The  big  guns  are  mounted  on  disappearing  car- 
riages. The  gun  is  loaded  and  is  then  aimed  ac- 
cording to  directions  given  by  the  fire-control  sta- 
tion, in  the  making  of  which  a  minute  knowledge  of 
physics  and  geometry  is  required,  and  the  gun  is 
raised  into  position.  When  it  is  fired,  the  recoil 
throws  it  back  and  down  into  the  pit  again.  There 
it  is  loaded  once  more,  driven  up  into  position  again 
and  fired.  Two  of  these  guns  are  placed  in  a  single 
pit,  and  together  they  can  keep  a  shot  in  the  air 
nearly  all  the  time,  their  combined  capacity  being  a 
shot  every  15  seconds. 

In  addition  to  the  long  coast-defense  guns,  there 
is  a  liberal  supply  of  mortars,  which  shoot  16-inch 
projectiles.  They  have  scored  as  high  as  70  hits  out 
of  a  hundred.  These  mortars  are  at  all  times  out 
of  sight  of  the  enemy,  and  are  not  fired  directly  at 
the  object  they  seek  to  destroy,  but  their  tremendous 
balls  are  hurled  high  into  ihe  air  and  allowed  to  drop 
on  the  deck  of  an  enemy's  warship.    The  mortars 


THE  ARMY  65 

are  fired  only  after  the  most  careful  calculations  in- 
volving the  force  of  the  winds,  temperature,  and 
many  other  conditions.  Their  projectiles  carry  in 
them  charges  of  as  much  as  60  pounds  of  high  explo- 
sives and  do  great  damage  when  they  hit.  If  one 
wishes  to  get  an  idea  of  the  exactness  of  the  aim  of 
these  mortars,  let  him  lay  a  piece  of  money  on  the 
ground  a  hundred  yards  away  and  toss  a  baseball 
up  in  the  air  so  that  it  will  fall  directly  upon  the  coin. 

The  biggest  gun  ever  built  is  the  great  16-inch 
monster  now  at  a  New  York  fort.  It  carries  a  pro- 
jectile weighing  a  full  ton  and  can  reach  an  enemy 
21  miles  away.  At  17  miles  it  can  toss  its  2,400- 
pound  ball  as  accurately  as  a  baseball  player  throws 
a  ball  to  a  team-mate  17  yards  away.  This  gun  has 
been  fired  only  a  few  times,  and  is  regarded  as  satis- 
factory. The  newest  coast-defense  guns  fire  a  14- 
inch  projectile  and  could  probably  sink  a  battleship 
at  a  distance  of  10  miles. 

The  War  Department  has  provided  for  the  United 
States,  it  is  believed,  the  best  system  of  coast  de- 
fense possessed  by  any  country.  It  is  believed  that 
all  our  principal  harbors  are  adequately  defended, 
and  the  fortifications  in  our  insular  possessions  are 
being  rapidly  pushed  forward  to  completion.  Work 
is  also  being  commenced  on  the  fortifications  at  Pan- 
ama. Additional  works  at  the  entrance  of  Chesa- 
peake Bay  are  about  to  be  commenced.  All  the  prin- 
cipal Atlantic  and  Pacific  coast  cities  are  well  de- 
fended. 

In  addition  to  the  coast-defense  guns,  many  har- 
bors in  American  waters  possess  a  complete  layout 


66        THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

for  the  planting  of  mines.  In  the  case  of  threat- 
ened hostilities,  these  harbors  would  be  literally 
underlaid  with  death-dealing  mines,  some  of  them  to 
be  exploded  by  contact,  and  others  by  touching  a  but- 
ton on  a  switchboard  on  the  shore.  It  is  said  that 
Uncle  Sam  has  worked  out  the  most  complete  sys- 
tem of  harbor  mining  that  exists  in  the  world.  Fur- 
thermore, every  harbor  from  Portland,  Me.,  to  Port- 
land, Oreg.,  could  be  completely  mined  at  a  cost  much 
less  than  that  required  to  build  a  single  battleship. 
The  moral  effect  of  these  mines  in  time  of  war  can 
not  be  overestimated,  since  no  nation  would  care  to 
risk  a  fleet  in  a  thoroughly  mined  harbor.  A  mine 
costing  a  few  hundred  dollars  may  destroy  a  battle- 
ship costing  millions.  Military  and  naval  experts 
say  that  it  was  the  knowledge  that  its  harbors  were 
amply  protected  that  allowed  Japan  to  fear  nothing 
from  the  Russian  Navy  and  enabled  the  Japanese 
fleet  to  assume  the  offensive.  "With  a  complete  sys- 
tem of  high-power  guns,  mortars,  search-lights,  fire 
control,  and  everything  else  that  tends  to  give  a  land 
fort  the  advantage  over  a  battleship,  it  seems  that 
the  American  coast-defense  system  is  a  perpetual 
guarantee  of  the  safety  of  American  cities  from 
bombardment  by  a  foreign  fleet. 

No  nation  on  earth  is  so  liberal  to  its  soldiers  after 
they  have  retired  from  the  service  as  the  United 
States.  Four  billion  dollars  is  too  large  a  sum  for 
the  human  mind  to  grasp.  It  is  enough  to  build  300 
or  more  modern  battleships,  or  to  run  the  postal 
service  of  the  United  States  for  forty  years  without 
the  collection  of  a  cent  from  the  people.    It  is  this 


THE  AEMY  67 

sum  that  a  grateful  nation  has  given  freely,  volun- 
tarily, and  without  a  single  regret  to  the  men  who 
have  served  it  in  its  wars.  And  it  is  probable  that 
a  like  amount  will  be  given  before  the  last  pensioner 
now  on  the  list  shall  have  cashed  his  last  voucher. 

The  pension  payments  of  the  American  Govern- 
ment are  greater  than  those  of  all  the  other  nations 
of  the  earth  combined.  At  one  time  and  another 
more  than  2,000,000  pension  claims  have  been  al- 
lowed, and  nearly  a  million  and  a  half  of  other 
claims  have  been  rejected.  Perhaps  nine-tenths  of 
these  pension  claims  have  grown  out  of  the  Civil 
War. 

The  Corps  of  Engineers  of  the  United  States 
Army,  in  addition  to  its  duties  relating  to  the  con- 
struction and  repair  of  all  fortifications  and  other 
works  of  defense,  also  has  charge  of  the  work  of 
improving  the  rivers  and  harbors  of  the  United 
States.  If  the  American  people  would  spend  as 
much  per  capita  on  their  inland  waterways  as  Can- 
ada already  has  spent,  every  inland  waterway  proj- 
ect in  the  United  States  could  be  perfected.  Proj- 
ects which  will  require  the  expenditure  of  half  a 
billion  dollars  have  already  been  approved  by  the 
Board  of  Engineers,  and  others  involving  the  expen- 
diture of  another  half  a  billion  dollars  have  been 
carried  out.  Those  already  constructed  carry  more 
freight  than  the  80,000  miles  of  perfected  canals  of 
continental  Europe,  which  cost  ten  times  as  much. 
The  improvement  of  the  Harlem  River,  under  the 
very  shadow  of  Wall  Street,  was  undertaken  in  1878, 
the  total  cost  to  be  less  than  $3,000,000.    The  project 


68         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

is  now  about  half  completed.  In  1875  it  was  decided 
to  give  the  Ohio  River  a  slack-water  navigable  depth 
of  6  feet.  In  all  the  intervening  years  since  then 
the  work  has  gone  on,  and  it  has  been  decided  to  in- 
crease the  depth  to  9  feet.  At  the  rate  the  Army 
Engineers  are  carrying  it  forward,  50  years  must 
elapse  and  $63,000,000  must  be  spent  before  this 
work  is  done.  The  trouble,  however,  does  not  lie 
with  the  Corps  of  Engineers,  but  with  Congress. 
That  body  has  so  many  demands  upon  it  for  appro- 
priations that  it  is  not  able  to  have  the  work  com- 
pleted more  expeditiously. 

The  War  Department  has  charge  of  the  United 
States  Military  Academy  at  West  Point.  This 
academy  is  one  of  the  foremost  military  schools  in 
the  world,  and  employs  111  officers  and  instructors. 
Over  500  young  men  compose  the  cadet  body.  They 
are  appointed  by  comjoetitive  examinations,  upon  the 
recommendations  of  the  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives from  the  several  States.  In  recent  years  there 
has  been  something  of  a  lack  of  interest  in  military 
education,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  more  than  200 
of  the  vacancies  in  the  Cadet  Corps  are  not  filled 
each  year,  and  that  the  corps  is  nearly  one-third 
smaller  than  the  maximum  capacity  of  the  school, 
which  is  placed  at  730.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that 
during  '^  10-year  period  the  Military  Academy  has 
not  been  able  to  furnish  a  single  graduate  to  fill  a 
vacancy  made  by  increases  in  the  Army,  but  that  the 
graduating  classes  have  averaged  more  than  50  short 
of  the  number  necessary  to  replace  ordinary  casual- 
ties, such  as  deaths,  resignations,  and  retirements. 


CLOCK  THAT  REGULATES  TIME  FOR  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


THE  AEMY  69 

The  "War  Department  also  has  charge  of  the  mili- 
tary parks  and  cemeteries  of  the  country.  The  park 
at  Gettysburg  is  regarded  as  the  finest  military  park 
in  the  world.  Steps  are  being  taken  for  marking  the 
position  of  the  Confederate  troops  on  that  battle- 
field, and  when  this  work  is  completed,  it  will  repre- 
sent the  most  comprehensive  effort  ever  made  to 
mark  the  position  of  troops  on  a  battlefield.  There 
are  military  parks  also  on  the  Civil  War  battlefields 
of  Chickamauga,  Shiloh,  and  Vicksburg. 

A  law  was  passed  in  1903  creating  the  office  of 
Chief  of  Staff  and  the  General  Staff  Corps  of  the 
Army.  The  Chief  of  Staff  is  the  military  advisor 
of  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  keeps  him  informed  on 
all  military  matters.  He  receives  from  the  Secre- 
tary of  War  directions  and  orders  given  in  behalf 
of  the  President,  or  by  the  President  directly.  All 
orders  of  the  Secretary  of  War  affecting  the  Eegu- 
lar  Army  and  Organized  Militia  when  called  into  the 
service  of  the  United  States  are  issued  by  him 
through  the  Adjutant  General;  and  through  the 
Chief  of  the  Division  of  Militia  Affairs  in  matters 
affecting  the  Organized  Militia  not  in  the  service  of 
the  United  States.  He  supervises  all  staff  depart- 
ments and  corps,  all  troops  of  the  line  and  staff,  and 
all  other  matters  pertaining  to  the  Military  Estab- 
lishment within  the  scope  of  the  War  Department. 
Under  authority  of  the  Secretary  of  War  he  can  call 
for  information,  make  investigations,  and  exercise 
all  other  functions  necessary  to  secure  proper  har- 
mony and  efficiency.  His  supervisory  powers  cover 
duties  pertaining  to  the  command,  training,  and  dis- 


70         THE  AMEBICAN  GOVEENMENT 

cipline  of  the  Army,  its  recruitment,  and  military 
operations,  distribution  of  troops,  inspections,  arma- 
ments, fortifications,  military  education  and  instruc- 
tion, and  kindred  matters.  In  short,  his  office  con- 
stitutes a  supervising  military  bureau  of  the  War 
Department,  which  is  expected  to  handle  all  of  the 
military  matters  in  behalf  of  the  Secretary  of  War. 


V. 

THE  NAVY. 

"With  tlie  exception  of  Great  Britain,  the  United 
States  has  what  is  perhaps  the  most  powerful  Navy 
in  the  world.  It  costs  approximately  $130,000,000 
a  year  for  the  maintenance  and  expansion  of  our 
fighting  force  on  the  seas,  of  which  approximately 
$100,000,000  goes  toward  its  upkeep.  The  author- 
ized enlisted  force  of  the  Navy  embraces  47,500  men 
of  the  seamen  branch  and  9,521  marines.  If  Con- 
gress follows  the  recommendations  of  the  naval 
authorities,  in  10  years  the  United  States  will  have 
about  40  first-class  battleships,  40  scout  cruisers,  and 
120  torpedo-boat  destroyers.  The  cost  of  building 
such  a  number  of  scout  cruisers  and  torpedo-boat 
destroyers  would  be  more  than  $100,000,000.  With 
40  battleships  on  the  list,  only  21  would  be  kept  in 
active  commission,  as  at  present,  the  remaining  ones 
being  kept  in  reserve.  Likewise,  only  four  or  five 
of  the  scout  cruisers  would  be  kept  in  active  commis- 
sion continuously,  and  no  more  destroyers  would  be 
kept  in  full  commission  than  at  present. 

Although  the  active  battle  fleet  has  been  increased 
from  16  to  21  ships,  and  the  torpedo  fleet  has  been 
added  to  in  an  even  greater  proportion,  the  cost  of 

71 


72         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

maintaining  the  entire  Navy  has  decreased,  and 
should  Congress  authorize  all  of  the  new  construc- 
tion desired  by  the  Navy  Department  in  the  way  of 
battleshijDS,  cruisers,  destroyers,  repair  ships,  etc., 
the  aggregate  expense  would  not  be  materially  in- 
creased, since  it  is  expected  that  the  economy  result- 
ing from  improved  administrative  methods  will  off- 
set the  cost  of  maintenance  of  an  increased  number 
of  ships  in  reserve. 

Although  the  United  States  now  leads  the  world 
in  naval  construction,  with  its  projected  30,000-ton 
battleships,  only  28  years  ago  this  Nation  did  not 
have  a  single  armored  seagoing  warship.  Although 
the  size  of  battleships  has  risen  from  16,000  tons  dis- 
placement to  30,000  tons  in  10  years,  the  cost  has  not 
risen  in  proportion.  It  cost  but  little  more  to  build 
the  26,000-ton  Arkansas  than  it  cost  to  construct  the 
20,000-ton  Delaware.  The  Vermont,  whose  keel  was 
laid  in  1904,  and  which  has  a  displacement  of  16,000 
tons,  cost  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  more  than 
the  Utah,  of  22,000  tons  displacement.  Battleships 
have  grown  greater,  not  only  in  size  and  in  the 
strength  of  their  armament,  but  also  in  their  effi- 
ciency. The  Delaware,  of  20,000  tons  displacement, 
burns  less  coal  than  the  Connecticut,  of  16,000  tons 
displacement. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  factories  in  the  world 
is  the  Naval  Gun  Factory  at  Washington,  which  is 
the  largest  gun-making  establishment  on  earth. 
Here  60-ton  guns  are  picked  up  and  carried  around 
with  as  little  apparent  exertion  as  a  boy  makes  in 
lifting  an  air-rifle  to  his  shoulder,  and  the  largest 


THE  NAVY  73 

guns  built  are  the  14-ineli  monsters  which  will  be 
placed  on  the  new  battleships.  "With  a  365-pound 
charge  of  smokeless  powder,  they  hurl  a  1,400-pound 
shell  through  the  air  with  an  initial  speed  of  nearly- 
half  a  mile  a  second.  So  great  is  the  force  with 
which  this  shell  is  propelled  that  it  has  a  possible 
range  of  25,000  yards.  One  of  these  shells  would 
pierce  at  least  5  feet  of  wrought  iron.  The  charge 
of  powder  by  which  it  is  hurled  on  its  death-dealing 
mission  generates  a  force  which  would  lift  the  great 
Masonic  Temple  of  Chicago  2  feet  in  the  air  in  a 
single  second.  At  7  miles  one  of  these  shells  would 
pierce  the  heaviest  armor.  At  every  broadside  of  the 
twenty  14-inch  guns  of  two  of  the  latest  battleships, 
more  than  12  tons  of  metal  would  be  hurled  against 
the  opposing  fleeto  This  is  much  more  than  the  en- 
tire gun  power  of  Dev/ey's  whole  fleet  at  Manila. 
This  metal  will  be  propelled  by  more  than  3  tons  of 
smokeless  powder  and  the  aggregate  cost  of  each 
broadside  will  represent  much  more  than  the  annual 
salary  of  the  Admiral  of  the  Navy. 

It  is  believed  that  the  naval  battles  of  the  future 
will  be  fought  at  long  range,  and  that  the  issue  will 
be  determined  largely  by  the  effectiveness  of  guns 
at  a  distance  of  7  miles  or  more.  In  this  particular 
the  American  naval  gunner  has  the  advantage  of 
those  of  any  other  country.  In  the  battle  of  Santi- 
ago, Admiral  Evans  estimates  only  5  per  cent  of  the 
shots  were  effective.  In  recent  naval  practice  the 
American  gunner  has  registered  hits  in  from  60  to 
90  per  cent  of  the  shots  fired,  and  Admiral  Evans 
thinks  that  40  per  cent  of  the  hits  would  be  regis- 


74         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

tered  in  actual  war.  The  guns  of  the  Connecticut 
shoot  five  times  as  fast  as  did  those  of  the  Oregon  at 
Santiago,  and  ''Fighting  Bob"  figures  that  in  five 
minutes  the  Connecticut  would  hurl  35,000  pounds 
of  steel  against  a  hostile  fleet,  whereas  the  Oregon 
landed  only  790  pounds. 

Among  the  most  interesting  sights  one  sees  at  the 
Naval  Gun  Factory  is  the  shop  where  jackets  are 
fitted  to  the  big  barkers.  So  great  is  the  explosive 
force  of  a  charge  of  modern  powder  that  the  breech 
section  of  a  great  gun  has  to  be  strongly  reenforced. 
Anyone  who  has  ever  seen  a  rural  blacksmith  '*cut 
a  tire"  on  Farmer  Brown's  road  wagon  will  under- 
stand the  principle  of  togging  out  a  big  gun  in  a  new 
jacket.  The  jacket  is  heated  for  a  long  period  in  an 
electric  furnace  at  a  temperature  of  from  400°  to 
500°.  After  it  has  sufficiently  expanded,  the  big  gun 
is  lifted  up  and  the  small  end  put  down  through  the 
jacket.  When  the  breech  end  comes  in  contact  with 
the  jacket,  it  is  in  position,  and  the  steel  is  gradually 
cooled  and  tempered  by  the  application  of  jets  of 
water.  One  hears  much  about  the  muzzle  speed  of 
the  cannon  ball,  and  wonders  how  it  can  be  accu- 
rately told.  Two  targets  are  connected  with  a  chro- 
nograph by  an  electric  current.  As  the  projectile 
passes  through  the  first  target  it  releases  a  weight 
from  an  electromagnet,  which,  in  falling,  re- 
cords the  exact  instant  the  projectile  passes 
through  the  target.  Another  weight  is  likewise 
released  when  the  projectile  passes  through  the 
second  target  and  the  difference  in  the  time 
registered    shows    how    long   it    required   for   the 


THE  NAVY  75 

projectile  to  cover  the  distance  between    the  two 
targets. 

To  measure  the  pressure  in  gun  fire,  two  methods 
are  used.  In  the  one  method  a  piece  of  brass  is 
placed  in  a  steel  case.  A  piston  is  connected  with 
this  piece  of  brass  and  the  pressure  produced  by  the 
explosion,  acting  on  the  piston,  compresses  the  brass 
in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  pressure  exerted. 
This  gives  the  basis  for  the  calculation  as  to  the 
amoiiiic  of  pressure. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  munitions  of 
war  is  the  modern  Whitehead  torpedo.  Its  motive 
power  is  furnished  by  compressed  air,  stored  in  a 
tank  within  the  torpedo,  at  a  pressure  of  about  1,100 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  In  a  chamber  back  of  the 
compressed-air  tank  is  a  mechanism  for  regulating 
the  depth  at  which  the  torpedo  shall  glide  along  in 
the  water.  A  piston  is  held  in  a  balanced  position 
by  the  pressure  of  springs  on  one  side  and  of  water 
on  the  other.  When  the  torpedo  goes  too  low  in  the 
water,  the  pressure  drives  the  piston  out  of  its  for- 
mer position,  and  this  in  turn  forces  the  submer- 
gence rudders  upward  and  drives  the  torpedo  toward 
the  surface.  When  the  torpedo  gets  too  near  the 
surface,  the  springs  force  the  piston  the  other  way 
and  the  torpedo  is  guided  downward.  This  would 
keep  it  gliding  first  upward  and  then  downward  un- 
less an  additional  mechanism  were  provided  to  regu- 
late the  action  of  the  piston.  To  meet  the  difficulty, 
a  pendulum  has  been  introduced,  which  keeps  the 
torpedo  submerged  at  a  previously  determined 
depth  during  its   entire    flight.    In  addition  to  a 


76         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

mechanism  for  keejoing  the  torpedo  at  its  proper 
depth,  there  is  also  a  mechanism  which  prevents  it 
from  turning  to  the  right  or  to  the  left.  This  is  con- 
trolled by  a  little  gyroscope.  If  the  torpedo  at- 
tempts to  turn  either  to  the  left  or  to  the  right,  the 
gyroscope,  true  to  its  laws  of  motion,  adheres  to  its 
f  own  straight  line,  and  in  so  doing  opens  a  little  valve 
in  a  small  steering  engine  which  moves  the  guiding 
rudders  in  such  a  manner  as  to  bring  the  torpedo 
back  to  its  course.  The  gyroscope  acts  in  tue  same 
way  as  a  person  handling  the  reins  in  driving  a  horse 
and  is  the  driver  which  guides  the  steed  of  death  on 
its  errand  of  destruction.  The  torpedo  has  a  war 
head  on  it  when  put  in  service,  which  explodes  the 
charge  when  it  hits  its  mark.  There  is  a  sea-valve 
in  the  torpedo,  which  automatically  scuttles  it  and 
sends  it  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  if  it  misses  its  mark. 
The  Navy  uses  smokeless  powder  for  all  its  big 
guns.  This  is  perfectly  harmless,  unless  ignited 
when  it  is  confined.  In  the  open  air  a  stick  of  it  can 
be  held  in  the  hand  and  lighted  and  it  will  burn 
slowly,  without  an  explosion.  At  the  Indian  Head 
Naval  Proving  Ground  near  Washington,  where 
smokeless  powder  is  made  by  the  Government  and 
stored  in  large  quantities,  for  a  long  time  there  was 
a  workman  who  daily  smoked  a  pipe  with  a  stem 
made  of  smokeless  powder.  A  former  chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  Ordnance  of  the  Navy  Department  used 
to  carry  a  cane  made  of  a  stick  of  smokeless  powder. 
Occasionally  he  would  set  the  end  on  fire  to  light  his 
cigar.  Gun-cotton,  which  is  the  principal  ingredient 
of  the  smokeless  powder  used  by  the  Navy,  produces 


THE  NAVAL  OBSERVATORY. 


THE  NAVY  77 

a  gas  having  a  volume  750  times  greater  than  the 
original  substance. 

The  task  of  provisioning  a  battleship  fleet  is  a 
great  one.  It  required  133,000  tons  of  coal  to  take 
the  world-girdling  fleet  from  Hampton  Koads  to  San 
Francisco  and  across  the  Pacific.  The  cost  of  trans- 
porting this  coal  alone  amounted  to  $755,000.  The 
fleet  was  provided  with  9,000  pounds  of  dried  eggs, 
which  is  equivalent  to  36,000  dozen  fresh  eggs,  and 
26,000  pounds  of  dehydrated  vegetables. 

Eealizing  that  an  error  of  a  minute  or  two  in  time 
might  lead  the  commander  of  a  fleet  to  miscalculate 
his  position,  and  that  such  an  error  of  position  might 
decide  the  fortunes  of  a  naval  battle  and  of  a  war, 
the  Navy  Department  established  the  Naval  Obser- 
vatory for  the  primary  purpose  of  providing  the 
exact  time  for  its  ships.  It  keeps  a  great  master 
clock  in  a  hermetically  sealed  case  in  an  isolated 
vault,  the  temperature  of  the  vault  never  being  al- 
lowed to  vary  more  than  the  hundredth  part  of  1°. 
This  clock  is  so  accurate  that  it  never  varies  more 
than  three-tenths  of  a  second,  and  at  times  it  has  run 
for  three  weeks  without  varying  the  hundredth  part 
of  a  second.  The  temperature  of  the  vault  is  main- 
tained at  an  even  degree  by  a  thermostat  and  a  small 
electric  light.  The  change  of  the  hundredth  part  of 
a  degree  of  temperature  would  affect  the  delicate 
thermostat  as  much  as  a  change  of  40°  affects  a  hu- 
man being.  When  the  temperature  in  the  vault  be- 
comes the  two-hundredth  part  of  a  degree  hotter 
than  normal,  the  thermostat  automatically  turns  off 
its  little  electric  stove.    When  the  temperature  falls 


78         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

below  normal,  the  thermostat  starts  the  stove  to 
work  again.  It  often  switches  the  little  electric  bulb 
off  and  on  as  much  as  a  dozen  or  more  times  a 
minute. 

Yet  with  all  the  wonderful  accuracy  of  the  big 
master  clock,  a  careful  check  is  kept  upon  its  per- 
formance. This  is  done  with  a  transit  instrument, 
which  looks  like  a  cross  between  a  telescope  and  a 
cannon,  and  which  is  mounted  on  two  great  pillars 
of  granite,  on  the  exact  meridian  of  Washington.  It 
is  adjusted  with  a  delicacy  almost  unbelievable.  It 
can  not  rest  but  a  small  percentage  of  its  weight  on 
its  pivots,  being  supported  by  a  sling  arrangement 
which  allows  only  enough  of  the  weight  on  the  real 
bearings  to  give  it  steadiness.  At  its  side  there  are 
two  delicately  adjusted  wheels  which  may  be  turned 
the  smallest  conceivable  fraction  of  an  inch,  and 
while  they  are  about  2  feet  in  diameter,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  use  four  microscopes  to  see  the  lines  in  the 
silver  on  the  rims  which  constitute  the  gauge  by 
which  the  instrument  is  set.  In  spite  of  the  greatest 
exactitude  that  is  obtainable  in  the  mounting  and 
operation  of  a  transit  instrument  there  is  always  a 
remaining  margin  of  error ;  but  it  happens  that  this 
margin  of  error  may  be  determined  when  the  obser- 
vations are  made  and  are  compensated  for  in  the  re- 
sulting computation.  These  errors  are  caused  by 
such  conditions  as  the  variations  of  temperature, 
changes  in  barometric  pressure,  and  the  personal 
equation  of  the  observer.  When  the  observer  wishes 
to  fix  the  time,  he  takes  the  transit  of  about  five  of 
the  fixed  stars.    He  knows  the  exact  instant  at  which 


THE  NAVY  79 

one  of  these  stars  ought  to  be  at  an  exact  position  in 
the  heavens.  He  aims  his  telescope  at  the  star  and 
watches  the  stars  cross  each  of  the  10  minute  spider 
threads.  Each  time  the  star  crosses  one  of  these 
lines  the  observer  presses  the  key  of  a  chronograph, 
and  the  fact  is  registered  electrically,  showing  the 
exact  time  of  crossing.  From  these  observations  he 
gets  the  data  by  which  he  is  able  to  determine  to  the 
hundredth  part  of  a  second  how  accurate  his  clocks 
are. 

One  of  the  rooms  at  the  observatory  is  used  for 
the  purpose  of  testing  the  chronometers,  clocks  by 
which  time  is  kept  on  shipboard  in  the  Navy.  Be- 
fore being  sent  out  these  clocks  are  kept  under  obser- 
vation for  six  months  and  are  regulated  so  that  they 
measure  time  with  remarkable  precision.  In  this 
room  it  is  aimed  to  keep  the  temperature  and  mois- 
ture conditions  as  near  to  an  approximation  of  sea 
conditions  as  may  be.  Wet  clothes  are  hung  up 
around  the  room  in  order  to  obtain  the  proper  de- 
gree of  humidity.  Every  vessel  in  the  Navy  must 
carry  at  least  three  chronometers.  If  only  one  were 
carried  there  would  be  no  means  of  knowing  when 
it  went  wrong.  If  two  were  carried  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  tell  which  one  was  right  and  which  one 
was  wrong,  in  case  of  variation.  So  they  carry 
three  and  when  two  of  them  agree  it  is  reasonably 
certain  that  it  is  the  third  one  that  is  wrong. 

The  Naval  Observatory  has  made  some  remark- 
able experiments  in  the  past.  One  of  the  most  inter- 
esting of  these  was  the  determination  of  the  velocity 
of  light  by  former  Prof.  Michaelson,  and  the  late 


80         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Simon  Newcomb.  Light  travels  so  fast  that  it  might 
girdle  the  globe  more  than  seven  times  in  a  single 
second,  yet  these  scientists  were  able  to  measure  the 
time  it  required  light  to  travel  from  the  Washington 
Monument  to  Fort  Myer,  214  miles  distant,  and 
return.  In  the  grounds  at  Fort  Myer  they  stationed 
a  revolving  mirror  with  a  speed  of  250  revolutions  to 
the  second,  and  by  revolving  this  mirror  they  were 
able  to  note  how  long  it  took  for  a  ray  of  light  to 
flash  across  the  intervening  space  and  back  again. 
They  found  that  it  could  cover  the  distance  in  the 
forty-thousandth  part  of  a  second,  and  thus  were 
able  to  settle  the  question  of  the  velocity  of  light, 
proving  former  theories  to  be  correct. 

The  work  of  the  Naval  Observatory  in  the  meas- 
urement of  time  finds  a  counterpart  in  the  careful 
surveys  made  by  the  Hydrographic  Office  of  such 
harbors  outside  of  the  United  States  as  American 
warships  may  have  occasion  to  use.  Lack  of  knowl- 
edge of  obstructions  in  the  usual  channels  of  the 
ocean  and  in  the  harbors  of  the  world  might  not  only 
imperil  commercial  navigation,  but  it  might  prevent 
the  proper  maneuvering  of  a  fleet  in  a  naval  battle. 
In  conjunction  with  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey, 
the  Hydrographic  Office  prepares  charts  showing  the 
condition  of  every  harbor  and  waterway  in  the 
world.  The  charts  are  printed  from  copper  plates, 
of  which  more  than  a  million  dollars'  worth  have 
been  made. 

The  Navy  Department  is  the  world's  greatest  user 
of  the  wireless  telegraph,  already  possessing  equip- 
ment worth  more  than  half  a  million  dollars.     This 


THE   NAVY  81 

will  be  more  tlian  doubled  in  a  short  time.  The  in- 
struments of  the  Na\^  are  so  tuned  up  that  outside 
instruments  can  not  read  its  messages  unless  they 
come  within  3  per  cent  of  having  the  same  n amber 
of  vibrations  per  second.  It  is  the  intention  of  the 
department  ultimately  to  have  four  big  wireless 
towers,  each  with  a  range  of  3,000  miles  around  it. 
One  of  these  will  be  located  at  Washington,  another 
at  Panama,  another  at  Honolulu,  and  the  fourth  on 
the  western  coast  of  the  United  States.  It  is  also 
intended  to  equip  two  or  three  of  the  large  cruisers 
with  similar  outfits,  so  that  the  department  will  be 
able  to  keep  in  touch  with  its  vessels  in  all  parts  of 
the  world  at  all  times. 


VI. 

THE  POST  OFFICE  DEPAETMENT. 

The  Post  Office  Department  of  the  United  States 
Government  is  by  far  the  largest  postal  institution 
in  the  world.  Its  300,000  employees  handle  more 
than  15,000,000,000  pieces  of  mail  each  year,  which 
is  one-third  of  the  aggregate  postal  business  of  all 
the  civilized  nations.  The  American  post  office  han- 
dles more  than  800,000  letters  every  hour  of  the  24, 
every  day  in  the  year;  it  issues  and  redeems  daily 
more  than  250,000  money  orders;  it  registers  daily 
more  than  115,000  letters  and  parcels,  and  it  handles 
thousands  of  tons  of  second  and  third  and  fourth 
class  matter  every  hour. 

For  many  years  there  has  been  a  deficit  of  from 
$10,000,000  to  $18,000,000  in  the  operation  of  the 
postal  service,  and  it  remained  for  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral Frank  H.  Hitchcock,  of  President  Taft's  Cab- 
inet, entirely  to  eliminate  this  deficit  and  to  make  the 
postal  service  not  only  a  self-supporting  but  a  pay- 
ing institution.  In  doing  so  his  main  effort  was  to 
stop  up  the  little  leaks  without  adversely  affecting 
the  service  in  any  way.  He  continued  the  applica- 
tion of  the  new  divisor  in  the  readjustment  of  pay  to 
the  railroads  on  the  weights  of  mails  carried  until 

83 


84         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

the  effect  had  been  felt  throughout  the  entire  service. 
He  recommended  to  Congress  a  change  with  respect 
to  the  rates  payable  for  service  on  land-grant  roads, 
which  Congress  enacted  into  law.  The  withdrawal 
of  empty  equipment  from  the  mails  and  its  transpor- 
tation by  freight  was  extended  throughout  the  weigh- 
ing sections. 

In  the  money-order  business,  imtil  recently,  the 
handling  of  the  domestic  advice  slips,  which  were  in 
every  instance  required  to  be  mailed  by  the  issuing 
to  the  paying  office,  cost  the  Government  about  $600,- 
000  a  year.  A  new  form  of  order  has  been  intro- 
duced in  which  the  advice  slip  forms  a  part  of  the 
order  itself,  and  is  presented  at  the  paying  office  by 
the  holder  of  the  money  order.  This  radical  change 
has  resulted  in  the  entire  elimination  of  the  six- 
hundred-thousand-dollar  expense  incident  to  the 
handling  of  the  advice  slips  under  the  former 
method.  It  formerly  was  the  custom  to  furnish  a 
return  receipt  card  showing  delivery  for  every  do- 
mestic registered  letter  or  parcel  handled  in  the 
mails.  This  required  the  handling  of  more  than 
30,000,000  such  cards  a  year.  By  the  authority  of 
Congress  these  cards  are  now  furnished  only  when 
requested,  and  this  resulted  in  the  saving  of  approxi- 
mately $77,000  a  year.  Economies  in  the  purchase 
of  supplies  also  cut  down  the  total  expenditure  of 
the  postal  service.  The  annual  supply  bill  amounts 
to  about  $4,000,000.  The  twine  used  by  the  service 
in  tying  packages  of  letters  costs  $200,000  a  year, 
nearly  a  billion  yards  of  it  being  used.  This  amount 
of  twine  would  go  around  the  earth  20  times.    The 


THE  POST  OFFICE  DEPARTMENT       85 

Post  Office  Department  long  sought  a  substitute  for 
twine,  but  has  given  up  the  quest. 

In  addition  to  the  four  Assistant  Postmasters  Gen- 
eral, who  are  the  aids  of  the  Postmaster  General  in 
commanding  the  postal  army,  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment has  its  own  legal  staff,  and  its  own  force  of 
traveling  representatives  or  inspectors.  The  Assist- 
ant Attorney  General  for  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment has  charge  of  the  enforcement  of  the  law 
against  lottery  schemes,  swindlers,  and  greengoods 
men  who  use  the  mails.  More  than  3,000  persons 
and  firms  have  been  denied  the  use  of  the  mails  on 
"fraud  orders." 

The  growth  of  the  mail  business  of  the  United 
States  has  been  one  of  the  marvels  of  American 
progress.  In  1837  the  average  citizen  spent  32  cents 
a  year  in  postage.  Now  he  spends  $2.29.  The  re- 
ceipts of  the  Chicago  post  office  to-day  are  larger 
than  those  of  the  entire  country  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Civil  War.  The  receipts  of  the  post  offices  vary 
from  $5  a  year  at  the  smallest  office,  in  Alabama,  to 
more  than  $23,000,000  a  year  at  the  largest,  New 
York  City. 

The  Railway  Postal  Service,  with  its  17,000  em- 
ployees, constitutes  the  backbone  of  the  American 
postal  system.  The  transportation  of  the  mails  on 
railways  costs  $50,000,000  a  year  and  the  pay  of  the 
clerks  $20,000,000  more.  Each  clerk  must  be  famil- 
iar with  the  location  of  from  5,000  to  20,000  post 
offices,  and  is  required  to  be  able  to  tell  instantly  on 
what  railroad  each  post  office  is  located,  through 
what  junction  points  a  letter  dispatched  by  him  to 


86         THE  AMEKICAN  GOVERNMENT 

that  oflSce  may  pass,  and  a  multitude  of  other  details 
which  can  be  mastered  only  by  very  retentive  minds. 
A  letter  addressed  to  the  little  village  of  Mount 
Crawford,  Va.,  mailed  in  Washington  before  a  cer- 
tain hour,  will  reach  its  destination  in  the  shortest 
time  by  one  railroad,  but  if  mailed  after  that  hour, 
it  will  arrive  sooner  by  another.  Every  change  of 
schedule  on  a  railroad  affects  the  method  of  dis- 
patching mail  so  that  it  will  reach  its  destination  at 
the  earliest  possible  moment,  yet  the  railway-postal 
clerk  is  expected  to  be  familiar  with  these  things  at 
all  times.  The  accuracy  to  which  they  can  attain  is 
illustrated  by  the  experience  of  one  clerk  who  made 
a  record  by  handling  17,000  cards  addressed  to  as 
many  post  offices  at  the  rate  of  60  a  minute  without 
putting  a  single  card  in  the  wrong  pigeonhole  in  the 
mailing  case. 

The  Rural  Free  Delivery  Service  costs  nearly 
$43,000,000  a  year,  and  does  not  bring  in  more  than 
a  fourth  as  much  in  return.  Yet  the  Fourth  Assist- 
ant Postmaster  General  insists  that  it  is  one  of  the 
most  valuable  features  of  the  entire  postal  service. 

Uncle  Sam  is  the  champion  letter  writer  of  the 
world,  but  the  Post  Office  Department  receives  no 
direct  revenue  in  postage  therefrom.  A  few  years 
ago  Congress  decided  to  ascertain  how  much  mail 
the  Post  Office  Department  was  carrying  free  for  the 
Government.  The  weighing  and  counting  was  done 
during  the  last  six  months  of  the  year  1907.  The 
latter  part  of  the  period  was  considered  dull  com- 
mercially, but  this  would  not  necessarily  affect  the 
business  of  the  Government.    During  this  half  year 


THE  POST  OFFICE  DEPAETMENT       87 

24,000,000  pounds  of  Government  mail  was  handled, 
which  was  at  the  rate  of  24,000  tons  a  year.  The  re- 
port showed  that  2,277,000  pounds  of  congressional 
mail  matter  and  21,663,000  pounds  of  departmental 
mail  matter  was  dispatched.  Congressional  mail  is 
larger,  however,  in  proportion,  than  these  figures 
indicate,  since  Congress  was  in  session  only  a  por- 
tion of  the  time  the  weighing  was  made,  and  the  vast 
amount  of  free  seeds  and  free  Government  docu- 
ments usually  sent  in  the  spring  were,  therefore,  not 
included.  During  the  count  of  seven  days  the  postal 
service  handled  633,000  pieces  of  departmental  mail 
for  each  of  the  seven  days.  Nearly  50  per  cent  of 
all  the  mail  dispatched  by  the  Federal  Government 
is  handled  in  the  post  office  in  Washington  City. 

Although  Government  mail  travels  free  and  pri- 
vate mail  hab  to  pay  its  own  way,  Government  mail 
travels  farthest.  Paid  mail  travels  an  average  of 
622  miles ;  congressional  mail,  750 ;  and  departmental 
mail,  782  miles.  The  last  count  of  mail  received  by 
Senators  and  Representatives  showed  that  nearly 
20,000  letters  a  day  are  received  at  the  Capitol.  The 
Post  Office  Department  is  the  greatest  producer  of 
Government  mail,  with  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture second,  and  the  Treasury  Department  third. 
The  Treasury  Department  receives  an  average  of 
about  4,000  letters  a  day.  One  word  saved  in  every 
letter  mailed  by  the  Federal  Government  would  en- 
able it  to  lay  off  enough  stenographers  to  do  the 
work  of  a  business  corporation  transacting  an  annual 
million-dollar  business. 

Counting  the  stamps  on  stamped  envelopes,  postal 


88         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

cards,  and  newspaper  wrappers,  over  11,000,000,000 
postage  stamps,  or  more  than  a  thousand  for  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  country,  are  issued 
every  year.  These  range  in  value  from  1  cent  to  five 
dollars.  The  average  stamp  user  has  never  seen  a 
5-dollar  stamp,  yet  more  than  3,000  of  them  are  sold 
each  year,  while  over  90,000  one-dollar  stamps  pass 
through  the  stamp  windows  of  the  country.  In 
years  gone  by  the  Government  issued  a  stamp  worth 
$100.  It  was  a  newspaper  stamp,  and  was  never 
seen  by  the  public.  It  was  placed  on  the  book  in  the 
office  of  the  dispatching  postmaster  and  canceled 
there.  All  newspaper  stamps  have  been  discon- 
tinued. 

The  story  of  the  origin  of  the  postage  stamp  has 
in  it  a  pleasing  little  romance.  Some  65  years  ago 
Rowland  Hill  was  staying  at  an  EngLsh  inn  when 
the  daughter  of  the  landlord  received  a  letter  by 
mail.  Looking  it  over  from  one  end  to  the  other  she 
inquired  of  the  postman  what  the  charges  were.  He 
replied  that  it  was  a  shilling.  She  did  not  have  the 
money  to  pay  the  charges  and  Hill  paid  them  for  her. 
Afterwards  she  told  him  she  was  sorry  he  had  done 
so,  that  she  and  her  lover  had  evolved  a  little  code 
of  their  own  by  which  they  put  their  messages  on  the 
outside  of  the  letters  and  thus  could  send  them 
through  the  mails  without  paying,  allowing  the  pos- 
tal authorities  to  destroy  the  letters  after  they  had 
looked  them  over  and  refused  to  pay  the  charges. 
This  put  Hill  to  thinking,  and  the  pay-in-advance 
stamp  was  the  result. 

The  Post  Office  Department  has  long  striven  to  do 


THE  POST   OFFICE  DEPAETMENT       89 

everything  in  its  power  for  the  convenience  of  the 
big  users  of  the  mail.  Large  business  houses  long 
felt  the  loss  from  the  petty  grafting  of  stamps  by 
office  boys  and  others  higher  up.  To  provide  means' 
of  identification  so  as  to  protect  the  buyers  of  large 
quantities  of  stamps,  it  was  arranged  that  the 
stamps  may  be  perforated  with  numbers  or  letters 
not  over  half  an  inch  square.  This  has  resulted  in  a 
large  decline  in  the  petty  pilfering  of  postage 
stamps. 

Another  order  which  has  resulted  in  a  great  sav- 
ing of  time  and  expense  to  the  postal  service,  and 
also  to  the  big  users  of  the  mails,  is  the  privilege  of 
sending  unstamped  third  and  fourth  class  matter 
through  the  mail.  To  a  firm  which  sends  out  a 
million  circulars,  the  work  of  stamping  them  is  very 
tedious,  and  the  actual  cost  of  the  stamps  to  the  Grov- 
ernment  is  not  insignificant.  So  it  is  provided  that 
where  a  business  house  sends  out  2,000  or  more  iden- 
tical pieces  of  mail,  it  may  be  granted  the  privilege 
of  printing  on  the  wrappers  or  envelopes  a  statement 
showing  the  amount  of  postage  paid,  the  office  at 
which  paid,  and  the  number  of  the  permit  under 
which  this  form  of  postage  paying  was  substituted 
for  stamps. 

Another  convenience  is  the  privilege  of  precancel- 
ing  stamps.  A  big  firm,  for  instance,  mails  50,000 
calendars.  Each  of  these  is  in  a  roll.  If  the  firm 
placed  a  stamp  on  each  one  of  these  calendars  and 
took  it  to  the  post  office  in  the  ordinary  way,  the 
office  would  be  swamped,  since  no  other  method  than 
the  old  hand  stamp  has  been  found  for  canceling  the 


\OJ!lMdtL. 


90         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

postage  on  package  mail.  By  permitting  the  pre- 
cancellation  of  stamps  both  the  patron  and  the  post 
office  are  saved  a  vast  deal  of  trouble  and  expense. 

It  costs  the  United  States  a  half  million  dollars  a 
year  for  the  upkeep  of  old  and  purchase  of  new  mail 
bags.  Over  900,000  locks  are  used  in  the  ordinary 
transportation  of  the  mails,  each  of  them  opening  to 
every  key  in  the  postal  establishment  used  in  con- 
nection with  the  ordinary  mail  pouch.  To  protect 
them  the  greatest  possible  care  must  be  observed  to 
prevent  a  single  one  of  these  keys  from  going  astray. 
There  are  56,000  rotary  registry  locks  in  use.  These  ■« 
locks  are  used  on  pouches  which  contain  registered 
mail  only,  the  mail  being  checked  in  the  pouches  by 
two  clerks  who  keep  a  duplicate  record  of  the  number 
of  pieces  placed  in  the  pouches  and  who  send  the 
original  record  in  the  pouches  to  the  receiving  offices. 
The  locks  are  opened  by  a  special  key,  and  have  a 
registering  equipment  like  that  of  a  bicycle  cyclom- 
eter, which  moves  up  one  number  every  time  the 
lock  is  opr'ned.  When  a  registry  pouch  arrives  at  its 
destination  two  clerks  open  it  and  check  its  contents 
with  the  bill  inclosed.  When  the  numbers  on  the  lock 
correspond  with  those  in  the  record,  it  shows  that  . 
the  lock  and  pouch  have  come  through  unopened. 
When  the  lock  numbers  do  not  correspond  it  indi- 
cates that  the  lock  has  been  opened  by  some  unau- 
thorized person. 

There  are  many  curious  things  in  the  postal  serv- 
ice. The  strangest  post  office  from  which  the  Ameri- 
can postal  service  receives  mail  is  one  on  the  Gala- 
pagos Island,  off  the  coast  of  Ecuador.    It  is  nothing 


THE  POST  OFFICE  DEPARTMENT       91 

but  a  barrel  in  which  letters  are  dispatched  semi- 
occasionally.  All  mariners  in  those  waters  know  of 
this  post  office,  and  when  in  that  vicinity  go  to  look 
in  the  barrel  for  letters.  Eecently  some  of  these 
showed  np  in  Washington  much  the  worse  for  wear. 

Mail  usually  gets  to  its  destination  in  the  shortest 
possible  time,  but  occasionally  a  letter  or  a  package 
of  letters  will  not  show  up  for  years.  Recently  a 
letter  came  to  the  post  office  in  Paterson,  N.  J.,  that 
had  been  mailed  three  years  before  at  Midvale,  5 
miles  away.  In  another  instance  a  letter  arrived  in 
an  eastern  city  bearing  congratulations  to  a  proud 
father  upon  the  birth  of  a  son.  When  it  arrived, 
that  son  three  times  had  been  congratulated  upon 
the  birth  of  children  of  his  own. 

The  Post  Office  Department  is  a  maker  of  maps 
as  well  as  a  carrier  of  mails.  Using  all  Government 
surveys,  it  makes  post-route  maps  of  the  States, 
showing  post  offices  and  all  mail  connections,  and 
also  rural-delivery  maps  of  the  principal  counties  on 
an  enlarged  scale,  showing  all  the  roads  and  resi- 
dences, the  dimensions  of  the  latter  maps  averaging 
30  by  36  inches.  The  sheets  of  the  post-route  maps 
are  sold  at  80  cents  each,  and  those  of  the  county 
maps  at  50  cents  each. 

There  has  been  much  controversy  over  the  ques- 
tion of  a  parcels-post  system  for  the  United  States. 
The  country  merchant  thinks  such  a  system  would 
be  ruinous  to  him.  On  the  other  hand,  the  advocates 
of  the  parcels  post  point  out  that  the  Rural  Free 
Delivery  Service  will  never  reach  its  greatest  useful- 
ness until  such  a  system  is  established,  and  that  the 


92         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

express  companies  will  contiime  to  swell  their  divi- 
dends by  reason  of  its  absence.  While  the  contro- 
versy is  being  waged  the  American  citizen  enjoys  the 
somewhat  novel  privilege  of  being  able  to  send  a 
parcel  through  the  mails  to  England  at  a  smaller 
cost  than  he  can  send  it  to  his  next  door  neighbor. 
Also,  he  can  send  a  11-pound  package  to  England, 
but  can  not  dispatch  a  package  weighing  more  than 
4  pounds  to  his  friend  in  the  next  town. 

The  Dead  Letter  Office  of  the  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment is  one  of  its  most  interesting  institutions.  It 
receives  about  12,000,000  ''dead"  letters  and  parcels 
a  year  and  some  8,000,000  jDost  cards  and  postals. 
Ten  million  letters  and  parcels  are  opened,  and  of 
these  about  6,000,000  are  either  forwarded  to  the  ad- 
dressees or  returned  to  the  writers.  One  can  scarcely 
imagine  the  great  number  of  queer  things  which 
show  up  at  the  Dead  Letter  Office.  A  museum  is 
maintained  where  many  of  these  strange  relics  of  the 
mail  are  put  on  exhibition.  One  of  these  exhibits  is 
an  old  white  hat  bearing  lines  and  rhymes  telling  of 
the  romances  of  school  days.  Another  is  a  rattle- 
snake's hide.  There  are  doll-baby  legs,  a  grinning 
skull,  an  old-fashioned  wooden  stirrup,  and  the  hind 
legs  of  a  wolf.  More  than  85,000  photographs  come 
to  the  Dead  Letter  Office  each  year. 

Often  live  animals  and  insects  are  found  in  the 
mails.  Once  a  clerk  opened  a  package  and  released 
a  whole  swarm  of  Kansas  chinch  bugs.  Another 
clerk  opened  a  small  pasteboard  box  and  out  of  it 
came  a  deadly  tarantula.  In  another  box  there  ap- 
peared a  large  rattlesnake,  accompanied  by  a  card 


THE  POST  OFFICE  DEPARTMENT       93 

on  which  was  written,  ^'I  hope  this  puts  an  end  to 
you."  A  careful  record  is  kept  of  all  valuable  in- 
closures  received  in  dead  letter  mail,  including 
money,  commercial  papers,  wills,  deeds,  etc.  Of 
some  $60,000  of  actual  money  received  in  a  year  only 
about  $40,000  could  be  returned.  The  remainder  was 
turned  into  the  United  States  Treasury. 

One  of  the  most  unique  events  in  the  year's  work 
of  the  postal  service  is  the  annual  dead  letter  sale. 
This  sale  is  held  just  before  Christmas,  and  the  pro- 
ceeds approximate  $10,000  a  year.  Formerly  it  was 
one  of  the  greatest  lotteries  imaginable.  A  young 
woman  made  the  highest  bid  on  a  package  contain- 
ing a  set  of  false  teeth.  A  woman-hating  man  was 
the  successful  bidder  on  a  package  containing  a  lot 
of  false  hair,  and  a  colored  woman  got  a  package 
containing  six  boxes  of  white  face  powder. 

Each  year  thousands  of  letters  come  to  the  post 
offices  of  the  country  addressed  to  Santa  Claus.  For- 
merly these  were  all  destroyed,  as  the  department 
was  never  able  satisfactorily  to  find  the  permanent 
address  of  good  old  Kris  Kringle.  Later  President 
Roosevelt  granted  Miss  Elizabeth  Phillips  the  right 
to  take  these  letters  and,  as  far  as  lay  in  her  power, 
to  grant  the  requests  contained  in  them.  Within  a 
year  Miss  Phillips  became  widely  known  as  "The 
Santa  Claus  Lady."  Her  untimely  death  caused 
much  sorrow  among  the  poor  children  of  the  country. 

One  of  the  innovations  of  the  present  administra- 
tion is  the  establishment  of  a  postal-savings  system. 
The  Postmaster-General  has  taken  a  personal  inter- 
est in  the  system  from  the  beginning  and  as  a  result 


94         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

it  has  been  extended  with  great  rapidity.  In  fact, 
none  of  the  many  countries  of  the  world,  operating 
postal  savings,  ever  tried  to  operate  so  many  deposi- 
tories in  so  short  a  time  after  its  installation.  The 
receipt  of  deposits  was  started  first  on  January  3, 
1911,  in  48  post  ofiSces  in  as  many  States  and  Terri- 
tories. Since  that  time  the  system  has  been  ex- 
tended as  rapidly  as  practicable.  There  are  ap- 
proximately 60,000  post  offices  in  the  country,  and 
it  is  the  purpose  of  the  present  administration  to 
have  a  savings  department  in  the  50,000  money- 
order  offices. 

One  of  the  most  widely  desired  improvements  in 
the  postal  service  that  is  indicated  for  the  early 
future  is  the  adoption  of  1-cent  letter  postage.  It 
has  been  asserted  by  congressional  leaders  that  as 
soon  as  the  Post  Office  Department  could  make  itself 
a  self-supporting  institution.  Congress  would  grant 
penny  postage  to  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
If  this  reduction  is  made,  it  is  predicted  that  the 
postal  business  in  the  United  States  will  soon  in- 
crease to  a  point  equal  to  that  of  all  other  nations 
combined. 


VII. 
THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTEEIOE. 

The  Department  of  the  Interior  is  little  more  than 
a  collection  of  unrelated  governmental  bureaus. 
There  is  no  relation  whatever  between  the  work  of 
the  Pension  Bureau  and  that  of  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey, nor  is  there  any  reason  why  such  widely  diver- 
gent activities  as  those  of  the  Patent  Office  and  the 
Office  of  Indian  Affairs  should  be  placed  under  the 
control  of  the  same  department.  When  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior  was  established  it  was  intended 
that  it  should  have  charge  of  ail  matters  relating  to 
the  internal  affairs  of  the  country. 

Its  establishment  grew  out  of  the  large  accession 
of  territory  following  the  Mexican  War,  and  the  con- 
sequent increase  in  population,  wealth,  and  business. 
The  act  under  which  the  Department  of  the  Interior 
was  established  was  entitled  "An  act  to  establish  the 
Home  Department. ' '  Since  the  establishment  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  Department  of 
Commerce  and  Labor,  there  have  been  many  in- 
stances of  duplication  of  departmental  activities  and 
divided  jurisdiction  over  the  same  subject  matters. 
This  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  the  Depaixments 
of  Agriculture  and  of  the  Interior  have  joint  super- 

95 


96         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

vision  of  tlie  lands  in  the  National  Forests,  but  the 
powers  and  duties  of  each  are  clearly  denned. 

Former  Secretary  Richard  A.  Ballinger  declared 
in  one  of  his  official  reports  that  the  Department  of 
the  Interior  ought  to  be  consolidated  with  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture.  He  thought  that  the  su- 
pervision of  the  Capitol  Building  and  Grounds 
should  be  transferred  to  the  Supervising  Architect 
of  the  Treasury,  that  the  Patent  Office  should  go  to 
the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  and  the 
Pension  Office  to  the  War  and  Navy  Departments. 

The  activities  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  are 
now  taken  up  by  the  supervision  of  the  affairs  of  the 
unrelated  bureaus  which  make  up  the  department. 
Holding  first  rank  among  these  bureaus  is  the  Gen- 
eral Land  Office.  Uncle  Sam  has  been  one  of  the 
most  bountiful  distributers  of  land  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  From  the  time  the  Government  was 
founded  down  to  the  preseiic,  1,835,000,000  acres  of 
land  have  come  into  his  control.  He  has  disposed 
of  all  of  this  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  ex- 
cept 700,000,000  acres.  As  a  buyer  of  real  estate 
Uncle  Sam  has  been  a  notable  success.  The  entire 
amount  of  land  received  by  him  cost  him  less  than 
5  cents  an  acre.  The  great  "Louisiana  Purchase," 
embracing  some  of  the  finest  land  in  the  entire  coun- 
try and  now  representing  an  aggregate  value  of 
many  billions  of  dollars,  cost  considerably  less  than 
a  nickel  an  acre.  A  large  proportion  of  the  public 
lands  has  been  given  away  as  free  homesteads  to 
those  who  would  settle  and  improve  them.  The  free 
homesteads  consist  of  160  acres.    A  law  has  recently 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR       97 

been  enacted  by  Congress  providing  that  a  home- 
steader can  secure  a  surface  patent  for  his  land 
where  it  is  underlaid  with  coal.  This  will  permit 
the  farmers  to  go  upon  coal  lands  and  raise  crops 
there  while  the  Government  reserves  the  coal  de- 
posits which  may  be  found  in  the  ground  beneath. 
This  law  will  result  in  millions  of  acres  of  public 
lands  being  utilized  for  farming  purposes  which 
might  otherwise  lie  completely  idle  pending  the  utili- 
zation of  the  coal  beneath  it. 

The  General  Land  Office  also  has  charge  of  na- 
tional monuments,  forest-reserve  work,  and  power- 
site  reserves.  Among  the  national  monuments 
under  its  control  is  the  Rainbow  Bridge,  a  natural 
arch,  resembling  a  rainbow,  309  feet  high,  and  278 
feet  in  span,  which  lies  in  the  southern  part  of  Utah. 
Another  is  the  Sitka  National  Monument  in  Alaska, 
upon  the  site  of  the  decisive  battle  grounds  of  the 
Russian  conquest  of  Alaska  in  1804.  It  has  numer- 
ous totem  poles,  which  contain  the  genealogical  his- 
tory of  several  clans  of  Eskimos. 

The  Pension  Office  is  an  important  bureau  of  the 
Interior  Department.  The  number  of  survivors  of 
the  Civil  War  now  on  the  pension  roll  exceeds  half 
a  million,  but  their  names  are  being  erased  by  death 
at  the  rate  of  more  than  30,000  a  yerr.  The  total 
number  of  pensioners  on  the  roll  now  approximates 
900,000.  The  annual  payments  on  account  of  pen- 
sions at  the  beginning  of  the  fiscal  year  1911  was 
$158,000,000.  The  average  value  of  each  pension 
per  year  was  $171.90.  The  total  amount  paid  out 
for  pensions  at  the  beginning  of  the  fiscal  year  1911 


98         THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

was  more  than  $4,000,000,000.  Of  this  $3,837,000,000 
was  paid  out  for  Civil  War  pensions.  In  other 
words,  more  than  fourteen-fifteenths  of  all  the  pen- 
sions paid  by  the  National  Government  have  been  on 
account  of  the  Civil  "War.  The  admitted  pension 
claims  in  the  files  of  the  Pension  Office  are  so  numer- 
ous that  they  fill  27  rooms  and  weigh  more  than  a 
thousand  tons.  More  than  three-and-a-quarter-mil- 
lion  claims  have  been  filed  since  the  establishment 
of  the  American  pension  system.  A  million  and  a 
quarter  of  these  have  been  rejected. 

Mrs.  Phoebe  M.  Palmeter,  of  Brookfield,  N.  Y., 
aged  89  years,  pensioned  by  a  special  act  of  Con- 
gress as  the  daughter  of  Jonathan  Wooley,  who 
served  under  George  Washington,  in  a  New  Hamp- 
shire company,  was  the  only  pensioner  on  account  of 
the  Revolutionary  War  remaining  on  the  roll  in 
1911.  The  last  widow  pensioner  of  that  war  was 
Esther  S.  Damon,  of  Plymouth  Union,  Vt.,  who  died 
in  1906,  at  the  age  of  92.  The  last  survivor  of  the 
Revolutionary  Army  was  Daniel  F.  Bakeman,  v*^ho 
died  at  Freedom,  Cattaraugus  County,  N.  Y.,in  1869, 
aged  109  years,  6  months,  and  8  days.  The  last  sur- 
vivor of  the  War  of  1812  was  Hiram  Cronk,  of  Ava, 
N.  Y.,  who  died  in  1905,  aged  105  years.  More  than 
350  widows  of  the  War  of  1812  were  still  carried  on 
the  pension  rolls  in  1911. 

The  Bureau  of  Education  is  a  part  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior  and  aims  to  serve  as  a  sort  of 
national  clearing  house  for  educational  information. 
It  seeks  to  gather  such  data  with  reference  to  the 
educational  activities  of  every  progressive  commu- 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR       99 

nity  of  the  world  as  will  enable  the  more  backward 
communities  to  take  advantage  of  the  lessons  of 
progress,  and  to  bring  themselves  to  the  forefront  of 
educational  work.  If  one  community  happens  to 
make  a  marked  success  of  a  system  of  transporting 
pupils  to  rural  schools,  the  Bureau  of  Education 
sends  experts  to  study  all  the  details  of  its  opera- 
tion, and  then  prints  the  results  of  this  investigation 
in  pamphlet  form  so  that  interested  educators  and 
legislators  the  country  over  may  have  the  benefit  of 
the  experience.  The  School  Administration  Division 
of  the  bureau  aims  to  secure  the  establishment  of 
better  systems  of  school  accounting  and  school  sta- 
tistics throughout  the  country.  A  specialist  in 
higher  education  is  engaged  in  gathering  informa- 
tion relating  to  standards  of  collegiate  and  profes- 
sional education,  the  statistics  and  accounting  sys- 
tems of  colleges  and  universities,  cooperation  in 
graduate  studies,  the  opportunities  afforded  in  this 
country  for  students  from  foreign  countries,  and 
many  related  matters.  The  bureau  also  has  charge 
of  educational  work  among  the  Eskimos  in  Alaska, 
and  is  giving  them  instruction  in  agriculture,  cook- 
ing, sewing,  bench  work,  washing  clothes,  cleaning 
houses,  sanitation,  and  hygiene.  It  also  helps  the 
destitute  natives  in  their  hours  of  need,  requiring  all 
able-bodied  natives  who  receive  such  help  to  per- 
form, in  exchange  for  supplies  received,  an  equiva- 
lent amount  of  labor  in  furnishing  fire  wood  for  use 
in  the  schools,  in  cleaning  the  premises,  or  in  the  re- 
moval of  refuse  from  the  vicinity  of  the  native 
houses.    The  bureau  also  has  charge  of  the  reindeer 


100       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

herds  of  Alaska.  There  are  22,000  reindeer  in  the 
34  herds  in  the  Territory.  The  income  from  the  sale 
of  reindeer  products  more  than  quadruples  in  a  sin- 
gle year,  and  the  natives  are  finding  the  reindeer 
industry  one  of  the  most  important  features  in  their 
economic  life. 

The  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  has  charge 
of  Indian  tribes  of  the  United  States  exclusive  of 
those  in  Alaska,  their  lands,  moneys,  schools,  the 
purchase  of  their  supplies,  and  their  general  welfare. 
There  are  now  approximately  300,000  L^dians  on  the 
reservations  of  the  United  States.  Formerly  it  was 
the  policy  of  the  Government  to  deal  with  the  In- 
dians as  tribes  instead  of  as  individuals.  All  of  this 
has  been  changed,  and  the  efforts  of  the  Interior  De- 
partment are  toward  the  progressive  assimilation  of 
the  Indian  into  the  body  politic,  with  the  greatest 
degree  of  protection  to  the  Indian  and  with  a  mini- 
mum of  injury  to  the  community  to  which  he  may 
belong.  It  has  come  to  be  recognized  that  the  only 
way  to  accomplish  this  is  to  deal  with  each  of  them 
as  an  individual.  Therefore,  as  rapidly  as  an  Indian 
demonstrates  his  ability  to  perform  the  duties  of  a 
citizen  and  to  be  subject  to  the  same  social,  political, 
moral,  and  legal  obligations,  he  is  given  his  freedom 
from  the  tutelage  of  the  Federal  Government  and 
made  to  hoe  his  own  row  as  any  other  American  citi- 
zen. To  change  the  characteristics  of  a  race,  com- 
pelling it  to  surrender  its  traditions,  its  customs,  and 
its  impulses,  is  a  matter  of  generations  rather  than 
years.  The  full-blooded  Indian  of  to-day  still  as- 
serts a  stubborn  resistance  to  the  efforts  of  the  Gov- 


DEPARTMENT  OF.  THE  INTERIOR     101 

ernment  to  transform  him  into  a  farmer,  with  fixed 
habitation,  or  to  interest  him  in  the  trades  or  com- 
mon vocations  of  life.  In  the  Government's  policy 
of  individualizing  the  Indian  for  civic  usefulness,  one 
of  the  most  potent  influences  is  the  distribution  of 
tribal  properties  among  the  individuals  who  consti- 
tute the  tribe.  This  distribution  has  resulted  in  the 
saving  of  millions  of  dollars  to  the  Indian  by  obvi- 
ating the  litigation  of  trumped-up  claims  for  fees  by 
alleged  representatives  and  speculating  attorneys. 
The  Indian  is  usually  ready  to  sign  away  his  birth- 
right for  a  mess  of  pottage,  and  in  some  instances 
the  fees  of  attorneys  in  a  single  cause  amounted  to 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars.  Under  the  new 
policy  such  claims  will  not  be  recognized  by  the  Gov- 
ernment. As  the  Indians  become  free  and  their 
property  becomes  subject  to  taxation  by  the  States, 
the  educational  system  now  supported  by  the  Fed- 
eral Government  will  become  a  part  of  the  State  edu- 
cational systems.  ^ 

Perhaps  the  most  trying  and  difficult  work  the 
Bureau  of  Indian  Affairs  has  to  do  is  to  prevent  the 
sale  of  liquor  to  the  Indians  outside  of  Alaska.  They 
are  proverbially  fond  of  the  white  man's  fire  water, 
and  despite  the  utmost  vigilance  upon  the  part  of 
the  Government  officials  in  the  prosecution  of  of- 
fenses of  this  nature  a  vast  amount  of  mischief  is 
still  done.  Sixty  thousand  dollars  a  year  is  appro- 
priated to  keep  liquor  out  of  the  hands  of  the  In- 
dians. As  a  rule,  the  Indian  gives  little  encourage- 
ment to  the  Government's  efforts  in  this  direction, 
but  now  and  then  Indians  themselves  have  circulated 


102       THE  AMERICAN  GOVEENMENT 

petitions  addressed  to  their  home  city  or  town  coun- 
cils asking  that  saloon  licenses  be  revoked  and  the 
barrooms  closed. 

In  the  process  of  making  free  the  property  of  the 
Indians  now  being  carried  on  by  the  Interior  De- 
partment the  thumbprint  is  figuring  largely.  Here- 
tofore it  has  been  the  custom  to  let  the  Indian  who 
could  not  write  simply  make  his  mark.  In  after 
years  he  was  inclined  to  forget  that  he  had  made 
such  a  mark,  and  could  usually  make  a  showing  to- 
ward proving  an  alibi.  An  Indian  inspector  sug- 
gested the  thumbprint  in  addition  to  the  mark  and 
all  new  Indian  deeds  bear  this  imprint.  The  result 
is  that  Lo  is  given  to  understand  that  no  amount  of 
false  swearing  will  serve  to  disprove  his  signature 
as  witnessed  by  the  unerring  thumbprint,  and  it  is 
said  to  have  shown  already  a  very  excellent  effect  on 
the  commercial  morality  of  the  illiterate  Indian. 
The  supervision  of  liquor  traffic  among  Indians  and 
natives  of  Alaska  is  under  the  direction  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  Alaska. 

Perhaps  the  richest  people  on  earth,  per  capita, 
are  the  Osage  Indians,  whose  property  is  now  being 
turned  over  to  them  as  individuals.  This  tribe  con- 
sisted of  2,230  persons,  and  they  were  the  joint 
owners  of  nearly  2,000,000  acres  of  excellent  farm- 
ing lands.  In  addition  to  that  their  ready-money 
funds  amounted  to  nearly  $9,000,000.  Under  the 
law  each  Indian  has  been  permitted  to  take  480  acres 
of  land  and  has  been  given  nearly  $4,000  in  cash.  As 
soon  as  each  individual  Indian  becomes  capable  of 
managing  his  own  affairs  he  will  be  given  certain 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR     103 

privileges  and  at  the  end  of  25  years  will  come  into 
fee  simple  ownership  of  all  his  property. 

It  is  said  that  when  Columbus  discovered  Amer- 
ica there  were  at  least  48  different  stocks  of  Indians 
inhabiting  the  territory  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
It  is  estimated  that  there  were  not  more  than  a  mil- 
lion Indians  here  at  that  time.  The  aggregate  In- 
dian population  is  growing  to-day,  but  the  number  of 
full-blooded  Indians  is  gradually  decreasing.  There 
are  now  26,000  pure-blooded  Indians  within  the  con- 
tinental United  States  who  still  adhere  to  their  blan- 
kets and  their  primitive  mode  of  life. 

The  work  of  the  Reclamation  Service,  another 
bureau  of  the  Interior  Department,  is  largely  that 
of  irrigating  the  desert  places  of  the  Western  States 
and  Territories.  This  work  promises  to  produce  a 
great  expansion  of  the  national  wealth  in  years  to 
come.  An  act  of  Congress  passed  in  1902  set  apart 
as  a  fund  for  the  reclamation  of  arid  lands  all 
moneys  received  from  the  sale  of  public  lands  in  cer- 
tain Western  States  and  Territories,  except  5  per 
cent  of  the  proceeds  of  such  sales,  which  was  set 
aside  for  educational  and  other  purposes.  This  has 
resulted  in  making  available  for  reclamation  work 
nearly  $68,000,000.  With  this  money,  the  Govern- 
ment goes  into  a  section  of  arid  country  and  con- 
structs the  necessary  irrigation  works.  Congress 
has  since  appropriated  additional  funds  and  as  a  cer- 
tain project  is  completed  it  is  made  available  for  set- 
tlement, and  each  settler  may  take  40  acres  of 
ground  for  a  homestead.  The  settlers  go  together 
and  constitute  a  water-users '  association,  paying  tho 


104       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

expenses  of  operating  the  plant  and  establishing  a 
sinking  fund  to  reimburse  the  Government  for  the 
cost  of  constructing  the  work.  As  this  money  comes 
back  to  the  Government  new  works  are  undertaken 
elsewhere. 

More  than  11,000,000  acres  of  land  have  been  irri- 
gated by  the  Government  and  private  interests.  It 
is  estimated  that  there  is  enough  additional  water 
available  to  irrigate  30,000,000  acres  more.  At  the 
rate  of  one  inhabitant  to  every  2  acres  this  would 
give  a  population  of  more  than  20,000,000  on  land 
that  once  was  arid.  The  Government  will  permit 
men  without  much  ready  money  to  work  out  the  cost 
of  the  water  rights  for  the  land  they  buy  by  assisting 
in  the  construction  of  canals,  ditches,  dams,  and 
other  works.  It  is  estimated  that  the  irrigated  area 
of  the  earth  amounts  to  75,000,000  acres,  of  which 
more  than  one-seventh  lies  within  the  boundaries  of 
the  United  States.  More  than  3,000,000  Americans 
are  now  living  upon  crops  grown  on  lands  made  fer- 
tile by  irrigation. 

That  irrigation  is  a  profitable  enterprise  is  illus- 
trated by  the  experience  of  the  State  of  Colorado. 
During  a  recent  year  the  value  of  its  wheat  crop  was 
$18.65  per  acre  as  compared  with  $12.19  in  Wiscon- 
sin, $11.22  in  Illinois,  $9.00  in  Minnesota,  and  $8.45 
in  Kansas.  Its  yield  per  acre  of  oats  was  double  in 
value  that  of  its  nearest  rival,  Wisconsin.  Its  bar- 
ley yield  was  valued  at  $19.12  an  acre  as  compared 
with  $13.65  per  acre  for  Wisconsin.  Its  yield  of  hay 
was  valued  at  $19.47  per  acre  as  compared  with 
$13.14  per  acre  in  its  closest  rival,  Wisconsin.   Many 


DEPAETMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR     105 

an  acre  of  irrigated  land  lias  been  made  to  yield 
profits  of  from  $200  to  $500  a  year. 

Deeds  of  daring  and  resourcefulness  almost  with- 
out parallel  in  Mstory  have  been  performed  in  the 
perfecting  of  this  great  scheme  of  desert  redemption, 
and  engineering  feats  have  been  accomplished  which 
have  astonished  the  entire  world.  Of  these  deeds 
the  Uncompahgre  project  in  Colorado  is  an  example. 
In  the  valley  of  the  Uncompahgre  River  lies  land  of 
exceptional  value,  but  until  the  United  States  took 
a  hand  there  was  no  way  to  water  it.  Flowing  par- 
allel to  this  river  is  the  Gunnison,  whose  route  lies 
through  a  canyon,  whose  volume  of  water  is  large, 
and  which  has  no  contiguous  land  needing  it. 

These  two  streams  flow  10  miles  apart,  separated 
by  a  mountain  2,000  feet  high.  It  was  decided  to 
take  the  superfluous  water  from  the  Gunnison  River, 
divert  it  into  the  Uncompahgre,  and  so  make  fertile 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  in  that  valley. 
Then  came  the  men  of  daring  who  were  to  survey  the 
route.  Swinging  by  ropes  over  precipices,  clinging 
to  crevices  of  rocks,  floating  down  unexplored  rivers 
on  rubber  rafts,  and  otherwise  encountering  many 
dangers,  they  completed  the  survey  of  the  tunnel  to 
be  cut  under  the  mountain.  This  tunnel  is  6  miles 
long  and  is  the  greatest  underground  waterway  in 
the  world.  In  the  work  of  the  Reclamation  Service 
covering  eight  years  an  amount  of  material  one-third 
as  large  as  that  to  be  removed  from  the  Panama 
Canal  has  been  excavated. 

The  Department  of  the  Interior  also  has  oversight 
of  the  work  of  the  Geological  Survey  and  the  Patent 


106       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Office.  In  addition  to  this  it  looks  after  the  elee- 
mosynary institutions  of  the  Federal  Government, 
the  national  parks,  the  administration  of  affairs  in 
the  Territories,  and  work  connected  with  the  United 
States  Capitol  Building. 


vin. 

THE  PATENT  OFFICE. 

Although  the  patent-right  system  of  the  world 
had  its  inception  in  England  and  now  finds  the  most 
effective  application  in  Germany,  it  probably  has 
rendered  its  greatest  service  in  the  United  States. 
The  civilized  nations  of  the  earth  have  issued  3,000,- 
000  patents,  and  of  these  more  than  a  million  have 
been  issued  by  the  American  Patent  Office. 

The  genius  of  invention  came  with  the  empire 
builders  to  Jamestown  and  Cape  Cod,  and  in  1641 
the  colony  of  Massachusetts  granted  Samuel  Wins- 
low  a  patent  for  a  new  method  of  making  salt.  In 
1646  a  patent  was  granted  to  Joseph  Jenks  for  an 
' '  engine  for  the  more  speedy  cutting  of  grass. ' '  This 
*' engine"  was  nothing  more  than  an  old-fashioned 
mowing  scythe,  but  it  was  the  first  of  a  long  line  of 
American  agricultural  machines  which  have  revolu- 
tionized the  farm  life  of  the  world. 

The  patent  system  was  provided  for  in  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution,  and  the  First  Congress  passed  a 
law  creating  a  patent  commission  made  up  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  the 
Attorney  General.  They  waited  for  three  months 
before  the  first  applicant  for  a  patent  appeared. 
Samuel  Hopkins  had  invented  a  new  process  of  mak- 

107 


108       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT         ^ 

ing  pot  and  pearl  ashes,  and  was  granted  a  patent 
tliereon  on  July  31, 1790.  Three  years  later  another 
act  was  passed  and  the  Secretary  of  State  became 
the  head  of  the  system.  Since  that  day  the  Ameri- 
can inventor  has  led  the  world.  He  is  bringng  out 
new  ideas  at  the  rate  of  more  than  30,000  a  year. 
During  the  recent  fiscal  year  36,000  patents  were 
granted  out  of  64,000  applications  filed. 

These  patents  covered  the  entire  range  of  human 
ingenuity.  Each  decade  brings  some  epoch-making 
basic  invention,  which  in  turn  brings  in  its  train 
thousands  of  other  inventions.  When  the  automo- 
bile was  first  patented  there  had  been  no  need  for  the 
thousand-and-one  attachments  that  have  followed. 
No  such  thing  as  a  siren  horn  or  an  anti- joy-riding 
device  was  dreamed  of  before  the  automobile  came 
into  popular  use.  As  soon  as  the  flying  machine 
becomes  commercially  feasible,  the  Patent  Office  will 
do  a  tremendous  business  in  patents  on  appurte- 
nances for  the  improvement  of  aerial  navigation. 

Indirectly  the  development  of  American  inventive 
genius  has  been  due  to  the  fostering  care  of  the  Pat- 
ent Office.  It  is  estimated  by  statisticians  that  two- 
thirds  of  all  the  national  wealth  is  the  product  of 
inventions.  Great  industries  have  been  called  into 
existence  through  the  patent  system,  and  have  given 
employment  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  xDeople  with 
wages  and  salaries  aggregating  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars.  In  less  than  40  years  the  activities  of 
the  inventor  in  the  field  of  electrical  application  have 
resulted  in  the  filing  of  patents  which  have  built  up 
an  industry  with  a  total  investment  of  $7,000,000,000. 


THE  PATENT  OFFICE  109 

There  are  43  general  divisions  in  the  Patent  Office 
under  which  applications  for  patents  are  made,  em- 
bracing all  the  known  arts.  These  general  classes 
in  turn  are  each  divided  into  subclasses,  and  there 
are  many  thousands  of  subjects  upon  which  patents 
are  issued.  Every  applicant  for  a  patent  pays  a 
stated  fee  ($35)  for  his  patent.  This,  with  the  other 
receipts  of  the  Patent  Office,  has  created  a  net 
surplus  of  over  $7,000,000.  In  other  words,  in 
spite  of  the  vast  benefit  conferred  upon  the  Na- 
tion by  inventors,  they  have  been  taxed  $7,000,000 
more  than  it  cost  to  maintain  the  American  patent 
system. 

A  great  celebration  was  held  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington in  1891  in  honor  of  the  first  centennial  of 
American  patent  history.  Four  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  patents  had  been  issued  up  to  that  time. 
Statesmen,  inventors,  and  publicists  were  enthusi- 
astic in  boasting  of  the  achievements  of  the  century. 
Since  that  time  only  20  years  have  passed,  yet  in 
those  20  short  years  more  patents  have  been  granted 
than  in  the  full  century  that  went  before.  In  that 
year  Congress  made  an  investigation  of  the  wage 
problem  which  showed  that  the  average  mechanic 
was  then  getting  tv.  ice  as  much  wages  as  his  prede- 
cessor in  1840.  The  average  mechanic  of  1911  gets 
twice  as  much  as  his  predecessor  of  1891.  It  will  be 
seen,  therefore,  that  wages  for  labor  have  practically 
quadrupled  since  the  dawn  of  the  age  of  labor-saving 
machinery  in  America.  Yet  at  the  beginning  labor- 
ing men  were  violently  opposed  to  the  adoption  of 
such  machinery. 


110       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

More  patents  have  been  issued  for  inventions  re- 
lating to  transportation  than  upon  any  other  line  of 
human  activity.  These  inventions  have  resulted  in 
a  great  saving  to  the  people  and  have  made  possible 
a  civilization  which  could  never  have  come  into  exist- 
ence but  for  them.  In  the  early  history  of  the  coun- 
try it  was  no  unusual  thing  to  pay  from  20  to  30 
cents  a  ton  per  mile  for  the  transportation  of  freight. 
To-day  the  average  ton  of  freight  in  the  United 
States  is  hauled  a  full  mile  for  less  than  1  cent. 

In  no  other  realm  have  the  labors  of  the  American 
inventor  and  the  fostering  care  of  the  Patent  Office 
served  a  better  purpose  than  in  the  development  of 
the  apparatus  with  which  the  farmer  produces  the 
things  that  men  eat  and  the  raw  material  out  of 
which  they  make  their  clothing.  Without  the  farm 
machinery  which  the  United  States  has  given  to  the 
world,  mankind  necessarily  would  be  still  a  race  of 
small  farmers.  There  could  be  no  big  cities ;  a  thou- 
sand arts  and  sciences  could  flourish  only  in  an  indif- 
ferent way  if  at  all. 

The  development  of  agricultural  machinery  hasc 
so  enhanced  the  productive  power  of  the  individual 
farmer  that  fully  three-fourths  of  those  who  for- 
merly obtained  their  living  by  tilling  the  soil  may 
now  find  profitable  occupation  in  other  vocations. 
According  to  authentic  statistics  it  cost  an  average 
of  $4.95  an  acre  to  cut  wheat  with  the  old-time  sickle. 
The  invention  of  the  grain  cradle  reduced  this  cost 
to  $2.60  an  acre.  The  big  steam  harvester  threshers 
have  lowered  it  to  50  cents  an  acre.  When  the  Chi- 
cago World's  Fair  was  held  a  delegation  of  foreign 


THE  PATENT  OFFICE  111 

agriculturists  were  taken  to  a  big  Dakota  ranch  and 
shown  how  American  wheat  may  be  harvested  at  a 
smaller  cost  per  bushel  than  the  mere  cost  of  food  of 
slave  labor  under  old-time  conditions. 

It  is  estimated  that  if  the  world's  crop  of  wheat 
were  harvested  without  the  aid  of  modern  machinery 
of  American  invention  the  annual  additional  ex- 
pense would  be  half  a  billion  dollars.  More  than 
50,000  patents  have  been  issued  upon  inventions  re- 
lating to  agriculture  by  the  American  Patent  Office, 
and  the  present-day  value  of  the  farm  machinery 
and  tools  in  the  United  States  aggregates  a  billion 
dollars.  "With  these  the  farmer  has  been  able  to 
make  his  property  holdings  worth  some  $40,000,000,- 
000  and  his  annual  gross  income  greater  than  the 
capital  value  of  all  the  trusts  of  the  United  States. 

Yet  the  maker  of  agricultural  implements  declares 
that  the  application  of  machinery  to  farm  work  is 
only  in  its  infancy.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that 
denatured  alcohol  can  be  utilized  as  motive  power 
for  all  sorts  of  farm  operations,  and  that  the  farmer 
may  make  this  motive  power  from  potatoes  grown 
on  his  own  farm,  and  that  with  it  he  can  conduct  his 
farming  operations  more  economically  than  with  the 
horse.  The  arrival  of  the  horseless  age  on  the  farm 
would  result  in  the  saving  of  nearly  a  hundred  mil- 
lion tons  of  hay  and  grass,  with  grain  in  proportion. 

Another  illustration  of  the  future  which  the  Pat- 
ent Office  hopes  some  day  to  make  possible  is  the 
wonder-working  results  that  would  be  accomplished 
by  the  discovery  of  an  economical  process  of  gather- 
ing nitrogen  from  the  air.     This  element,  when  ap- 


112       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

plied  to  the  soil  in  proper  quantities,  possesses  the 
almost  magical  power  of  making  four  blades  of 
grass  grow  where  one  grew  before.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  plentiful  things  in  the  world,  existing  in  incal- 
culable quantities  in  the  free  air,  but  coming  down 
to  serve  as  plant  food  only  upon  the  wings  of  the 
lightning  and  the  bosom  of  the  rain  drop.  The  in- 
ventor who  will  find  a  cheap  method  of  extracting  it 
will  make  the  United  States  able  to  support  a  popu- 
lation of  300,000,000  people  more  easily  than  it  now 
supports  90,000,000. 

It  is  only  60  years  since  manufacturing  became 
one  of  the  national  activities  of  the  Unitod  States, 
largely  under  the  stimulating  influence  of  the  Amer- 
ican patent  system.  Since  that  time  the  value  of  our 
manufactures  has  increased  more  than  fifteenfold; 
the  wages  of  the  factory  employees  of  the  country 
have  been  multiplied  by  10 ;  and  the  number  of  men 
and  women  finding  emiDloyment  in  factory  work  has 
been  quintupled.  Statisticians  figure  that  under 
former  conditions  it  would  require  at  least  a  hun- 
dred million  employees  to  turn  out  the  products  now 
made  in  the  factories  of  the  United  States  by  the 
5,000,000  men  and  women  engaged  in  factory  work. 

The  inventor  of  machinery  for  the  factory  has  ren- 
dered a  signal  service  to  humanity.  He  has  proved 
himself  wonderfully  versatile.  He  has  devised  a 
huge  hydraulic  forge  able  to  exert  a  pressure  of 
14,000  tons;  he  has  made  a  machine  which  will  cut 
a  screw  thread  with  260  turns  to  the  inch.  One  of 
his  machines  will  produce  a  giant  cable  many  inches 
in  diameter  and  another  a  wire  one-tenth  the  diame- 


THE  PATENT  OFFICE  113 

ter  of  a  woman's  hair.  One  macliine  will  weave  an 
iron  netting  so  heavy  that  it  will  serve  as  the  front 
of  a  tiger's  cage,  and  another  a  steel  gauze  so  fine 
that  it  has  40,000  meshes  to  the  square  inch.  One 
inventor  will  produce  a  cutting  machine  which  vtdll 
make  slices  so  thin  that  thousands  may  be  piled  up 
in  a  layer  an  inch  high,  and  another  a  steel  saw  so 
strong  that  it  will  cut  a  groove  through  the  hardest 
metal  with  as  much  ease  as  a  knife  cuts  a  slice  of 
bread. 

The  manufacturer  is  able  to  take  a  piece  of  iron 
and  transform  it  into  a  giant  boiler,  into  hairsprings 
for  watches  worth  13  times  their  weight  in  gold,  or 
into  watch  screws  so  small  that  a  hundred  thousand 
may  be  put  into  a  thimble.  One  of  the  most  striking 
cases  of  labor  saving  txirough  the  patent  system  is 
that  of  mechanical  shoemaking.  By  the  old-fash- 
ioned cobblers'  methods,  it  took  the  shoemaker  two 
days  to  produce  a  pair  of  shoes.  To-day  that  pair 
of  shoes  may  be  made  in  20  minutes,  60  operatives 
and  45  machines  being  utilized  in  the  process. 

It  requires  billions  of  boxes  to  carry  the  fruit  and 
berries  of  the  country  to  the  urban  consumer.  The 
same  ingenuity  that  has  made  it  possible  for  the 
American  inventor  to  produce  a  bit  that  will  bore  a 
square  hole  has  enabled  him  to  evolve  a  machine 
which  takes  in  raw  strips  of  lumber  and  turns  out 
completed  boxes.  One  girl  and  a  box-making  ma- 
chine will  turn  out  12,000  berry  baskets  or  4,000 
grape  baskets  in  a  day. 

The  genius  of  the  inventor  brings  hundreds  of 
comforts  to  the  poor  which  could  not  be  enjoyed  by 


114       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

the  rich  before  the  rise  of  the  American  patent  sys- 
tem. A  century  ago  it  took  the  earnings  of  32  days 
of  common  labor  to  buy  a  single  linen  bed  sheet. 
Now  even  the  poorest  may  have  them.  A  century 
ago  it  required  the  labor  of  days  to  buy  a  gridiron. 
To-day  the  vv^orkman  in  the  street  makes  enough  in 
an  hour  to  buy  a  good  one.  A  little  more  than  a  cen- 
tury ago  the  activities  of  one-half  of  the  civilized 
world  were  entirely  absorbed  in  providing  clothes 
for  the  people. 

Although  many  marvelous  inventions  are  included 
in  the  files  of  the  Patent  Office,  it  is  quite  generally 
believed  by  patent  authorities  that  the  years  to  come 
will  far  surpass  those  that  are  gone.  One  of  the 
problems  engaging  the  attention  of  inventors  to-day 
is  that  of  economically  using  the  fuel  which  has  been 
stored  in  the  earth  in  the  form  of  coal.  It  is  said 
that  the  coal  mined  in  the  United  States  in  a  single 
year  represents  almost  as  much  work  as  the  entire 
human  race  could  do  in  a  full  generation.  The  en- 
ergy in  a  pound  of  anthracite  coal  is  equivalent  to 
that  expended  by  a  hod  carrier  in  10  hours'  work. 
Yet  the  proportion  of  this  energy  utilized  under 
present-day  methods  is  less  than  the  hod  carrier 
would  spend  in  50  minutes.  A  piece  of  coal  weigh- 
ing less  than  2  pounds  has  in  it  as  much  power  as  is 
exerted  by  a  horse  pulling  a  plow  from  sun  to  sun. 
If  all  the  energy  of  coal  were  utilized  it  would  re- 
quire only  300  tons  to  drive  a  Lusitania  across  the 
Atlantic.  Gradually  the  patents  that  are  being  is- 
sued are  increasing  the  percentage  of  energy  which 
may  be  extracted  from  coal,  and  there  is  even  hope 


THE  PATENT  OFFICE  115 

tliat  the  laboratory  processes  of  making  electricity 
directly  from  coal  may  become  commercially  feas- 
ible. 

But  suppose  none  of  them  work  out,  and  the  pres- 
ent wasteful  methods  of  coal  mining  and  use  finally 
exhaust  the  coal  supply?  Will  we  then  be  deprived 
of  the  necessarily  abundant  supply  of  motive  power? 
The  inventor  has  already  answered  this  question  by 
bringing  out  a  solar  engine.  It  needs  only  cloudless 
skies  and  hot  climates  for  its  successful  operation. 
Along  the  water  fronts  of  the  desert  regions  of  the 
world  may  be  found  strips  of  land  a  mile  wide  with 
an  aggregate  length  of  more  than  8,000  miles.  With 
solar  engines  to  develop  the  wasted  sunshine  of  these 
regions,  2,000,000,000  horsepower  could  be  utilized 
through  9  hours  a  day — enough  to  turn  every  wheel 
in  the  world.  There  men  could  cool  their  houses 
with  refrigerating  machinery  driven  by  the  heat  of 
the  sun.  They  could  drive  their  factories,  turn  the 
desert  into  a  land  perennially  flowing  with  the  milk 
and  honey  of  plenty  by  irrigation,  and  could  elimi- 
nate a  majority  of  the  wasteful  processes  of  modem 
civilization,  all  by  the  direct  application  of  the  heat 
of  the  sun  as  motive  power.  The  electricity  for  their 
railroads,  their  automobiles,  and  their  lights  could 
be  generated  by  it.  They  could  lead  lives  all  but 
independent  of  mundane  weather  conditions,  and 
might  look  back  upon  the  civilization  of  the  twentieth 
century  as  we  now  look  back  upon  that  of  centuries 
ago. 

If  the  records  of  the  Patent  OflSce  could  reveal  all 
of  the  comedy  and  tragedy  they  contain  they  would 


116       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

furnish  a  fascinating  chapter  in  the  story  of  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  American  Government.  Thousands 
of  men  and  women  have  pursued  that  will-o'-the- 
wisp  of  invention — perpetual  motion.  Many  of 
them,  at  last  realizing  that  their  long  quest  has  been 
in  vain,  have  committed  suicide ;  other  hundreds  have 
wrestled  with  the  problem  until  their  minds  have 
broken  down  under  the  strain.  The  Patent  Office 
tells  every  applicant  that  the  one  essential  thing  to 
be  produced  is  a  working  model.  Of  course,  no  such 
model  is  possible,  and  the  would-be  inventor  goes 
away  disappointed  and  certain  that  the  Government 
has  maltreated  him  by  demanding  it.  The  ingenuity 
of  those  who  have  tried  to  devise  perpetual  motion 
machines  is  worthy  of  a  better  cause.  One  of  them 
used  a  water  wheel  for  pumping  water  into  a  basin 
above  the  wheel.  This  water,  in  turn,  was  expected 
to  pump  more  water  into  the  basin  by  turning  the 
wheel  as  it  descended.  Another  wrestler  with  the 
problem  used  a  wheel  and  a  large  number  of  metal 
balls.  Arms  were  so  arranged  on  the  wheel  that  as 
it  turned  around  the  balls  would  roll  out  to  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  arm  until  they  reached  the  lowest 
point,  and  then  would  roll  back  to  the  hub  of  the 
wheel  as  they  ascended  on  the  other  side.  The  in- 
ventor believed  that  the  power  applied  by  the  balls 
going  downward  would  exceed  that  required  to  raise 
the  ones  traveling  upward,  and  that  thus  a  perpetual 
motion  would  be  established. 

The  officials  of  the  Patent  Office  often  have  very 
amusing  experiences.  Some  years  ago  a  minister 
from  a  southern  city  came  to  the  Patent  Office  and 


THE  PATENT  OFFICE  117 

asked  the  chief  of  the  Drafting  Division  to  have 
made  for  him  a  drawing  of  an  apparatus  he  had  for 
finding  keyholes  in  doors  after  dark.  The  number 
of  peculiar  patents  that  have  been  issued  is  surpris- 
ing. One  of  these  is  a  device  to  enable  a  man  buried 
alive  to  signal  to  the  people  outside  his  desire  to  be 
released  from  the  grave.  Another  covers  a  device 
in  the  shape  of  a  collision-proof  railroad  train.  It 
carried  trucks  fore-and-aft  with  rails  running  over 
the  roof  of  the  train  so  that  one  train  overtaking  or 
passing  another  would  run  over  the  top  of  the  other 
train  instead  of  colliding  with  it.  Another  invention 
for  the  prevention  of  collisions  consists  of  a  large 
truck  several  hundred  feet  long  built  on  the  lazy- 
tong  principle. 

It  required  120  years  for  the  Patent  Office  to  issue 
its  first  million  patents,  the  millionth  one  having 
been  issued  August  8, 1911.  At  the  rate  patents  are 
being  issued  to-day  the  next  million  will  be  issued  in 
less  than  30  years. 

It  is  probable  that  in  the  early  future  the  Govern- 
ment will  undertake  the  erection  of  a  new  patent 
office  building.  The  patent  records,  representing 
the  ingenuity  of  a  century,  and  worth  millions  of  dol- 
lars to  the  Government,  are  now  housed  in  such  a 
way  that  a  fire  breaking  out  in  the  building  would 
probably  end  in  almost  total  loss  of  these  records. 
Many  years  ago  there  was  such  a  fire,  and  at  that 
time  thousands  of  models  of  vast  historic  interest 
were  destroyed. 


IX. 

THE  GEOLOGICAL  SUEVEY. 

What  the  Department  of  Agriculture  is  to  the 
farmer,  the  Geological  Survey  is  to  the  miner,  the 
manufacturer,  the  builder,  the  railroader,  the  irriga- 
tionist,  the  drainer  of  swamp  lands,  the  digger  of 
deep  waterways;  in  short,  to  everybody  who  has 
occasion  to  know  anything  about  topography,  geol- 
ogy, mineral  and  water  resources,  structural  mate- 
rials, and  waste  utilization.  It  is  a  sort  of  John  the 
Baptist  in  the  wilderness  of  undeveloped  resources, 
preparing  the  way  for  those  who  would  most  effect- 
ively utilize  these  vast  resources,  and  laying  the 
foundations  for  future  engineering,  construction, 
and  conservation  work.  It  is  a  sort  of  watchdog 
over  the  natural  wealth  of  the  Nation.  In  this  ca- 
pacity it  stands  guardian  over  millions  of  dollars  of 
natural  wealth,  where  the  watchdog  of  the  Treasury 
stands  guardian  over  thousands  of  dollars  of  actual 
gold  and  silver. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  activities  of  the  Sur- 
vey is  the  making  of  a  great  geologic  map  of  the 
United  States.  This  map  is  so  exhaustive  and  re- 
quires such  close  investigation  that  work  has  been 
carried  forward  on  it  for  some  30  years,  and  yet  it 

119 


120       THE  AMEBIC  AN  GOVERNMENT 

covers  only  a  comparatively  small  portion  of  the 
United  States.  It  is  a  map  which  in  large  part  is 
being  made  on  the  scales  of  1  and  2  miles  to  the  inch. 
Such  a  map  on  a  scale  of  1  mile  to  the  inch  would 
require  a  sheet  of  paper  about  240  by  180  feet,  prac- 
tically half  a  city  block  in  area.  Of  course,  it  will 
be  impossible  to  make  such  a  map  on  one  plate,  so 
it  is  being  made  piece  by  piece,  and  the  individual 
sheets  are  bound  together  with  descriptive  text  ac- 
companying them. 

The  first  essential  in  the  making  of  this  map  is  a 
topographic  survey  and  map  of  the  land  to  be  geo- 
logically platted.  This  topographic  map,  which  is 
also  in  sections  to  correspond  with  the  geologic  map, 
is  made  by  another  branch  of  the  Geological  Survey. 
The  topographic  map  sheets  are  in  themselves  peer- 
less results  of  geographic  surveying.  They  show 
every  physical  characteristic  of  the  surface  of  the 
area  surveyed.  Every  mountain,  hill,  valley,  slope, 
stream,  swamp,  and  all  the  works  of  man  are  exactly 
portrayed;  indeed,  a  clever  model  maker  may  take 
one  in  hand  and  by  it  construct  a  miniature  model  of 
the  area  shown  on  the  map.  Over  one-third  of  the 
United  States  has  been  thus  mapped.  Aside  from 
its  use  as  a  base  for  geologic  work,  the  topographic 
map  has  come  to  have  a  high  intrinsic  value  as  a  base 
map  for  all  engineering  work. 

In  order  to  map  the  geology  of  a  region,  the  geol- 
ogist must  determine  the  character  and  distribution 
of  the  individual  rough  masses  and  their  relation  to 
one  another.  He  must  travel  over  the  whole  area 
and  plat  all  outcrops  and  ledges  of  rock.     The  dips 


THE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  121 

of  the  rocks  must  be  measured  in  order  to  determine 
the  amount  of  deformation  they  have  undergone  and 
other  most  particular  studies  must  be  made. 

A  knowledge  of  fossil  remains  of  plants,  birds, 
animals,  and  fishes  is  often  of  great  assistance  to 
the  geologist  in  locating  various  mineral  deposits. 
For  instance,  there  is  a  particular  fossil  mollusk 
which  is  of  the  same  geologic  age  as  certain  coal  de- 
posits. When  the  geologist  discovers  one  of  these 
he  knows  that  coal  may  be  not  far  distant.  These 
fossils  are  utilized  as  keys  to  translate  the  secrets 
below  the  surface  of  the  ground. 

When  this  great  geologic  map  is  completed  it  will 
constitute  a  most  remarkable  exposition  of  the  min- 
eral resources  of  the  United  States.  Each  section 
of  the  map  reveals  minutely  the  mineral  resources, 
the  geologic  formation,  the  character  of  the  soil,  the 
underground  water,  and  a  hundred  other  things 
which  are  of  immeasurable  value  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  The  topographic  map  upon  which 
the  one  dealing  with  the  geologic  formations  of  the 
country  is  based  is  being  projected  on  a  scale  of  a 
mile  to  the  inch  in  the  more  thickly  settled  regions 
of  the  United  States;  approximately  2  miles  to  the 
inch  in  other  sections  and,  in  most  cases,  4  miles  to 
the  inch  in  Alaska.  A  surveying  party  is  able  to 
cover  a  maximum  of  500  square  miles  in  a  season  in 
making  this  map,  and  the  cost  of  the  work  varies 
from  $12  to  $30  a  square  mile,  according  to  the  na- 
ture of  the  country. 

In  addition  to  being  a  mapmaker,  engraver,  and 
printer,  the  Geological  Survey  is  perhaps  the  world's 


122       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

greatest  prospector.  By  the  expenditure  of  less  than 
10  cents  an  acre  in  examination  to  ascertain  the  pres- 
ence and  quantity  of  coal  deposits,  the  Survey  has 
increased  the  value  of  thousands  of  acres  of  land 
from  $20  to  $400  an  acre.  Some  70,000,000  acres  of 
coal  lands  still  remain  in  the  possession  of  the 
United  States  Government.  Under  the  construction 
of  the  coal  law,  all  such  lands  within  15  miles  of  a 
railroad  were  to  be  sold  at  not  less  than  $20  an  acre; 
all  over  15  miles  from  a  railroad  should  be  sold  at 
not  less  than  $10  an  acre,  the  minimum  price.  In 
practice  $10  and  $20  was  made  the  uniform  selling 
price. 

A  new  order  of  things  now  prevails.  The  Survey 
geologist  goes  upon  these  coal  lands,  locates  an  out- 
cropping  bed  of  coal,  measures  its  thickness  at  many 
points,  studies  its  altitude,  determines  its  faults,  and 
passes  on  its  quality.  A  board  of  geologists  then 
calculates  the  amount  of  coal  on  each  tract  of  40 
acres,  plats  it  on  the  official  maps,  and  computes  the 
value  of  the  tract  on  the  basis  of  the  coal  in  the 
ground.  The  price  then  fixed  is  a  nice  adjustment 
which  shall  encourage  development,  but  prevent  the 
acquisition  of  the  coal  lands  for  speculative  pur- 
poses. According  to  quality  of  coal  and  ease  of  min- 
ing, the  prices  range  from  one-half  cent  to  3  cents  a 
ton. 

But  even  at  this  remarkably  low  figure,  the  Gov- 
ernment is  able  to  dispose  of  the  coal  lands  at  a 
largely  enhanced  value.  The  maximum  value  of  a 
single  township  in  Wyoming  under  the  old  regula- 
tions was  $2,088,600.     Under  the  new  regulations  its 


THE  GEOLOGICAL  SUEVEY  123 

value  is  $15,777,660.  Probably  not  more  than  a  tliird 
of  the  coal  lands  owned  by  the  United  States  have 
been  surveyed  in  detail,  but  when  the  work  is  com- 
pleted Uncle  Sam  will  find  himself  vastly  richer  than 
if  he  had  continued  to  dispose  of  his  properties  on 
the  old  basis  of  sale.  From  April,  1909,  to  August, 
1911, the  Survey  classified  and  valued  16,873,370 
acres  of  coal  land  with  a  total  new  system  valuation 
of  $711,992,537,  as  against  $266,652,431  under  the  old 
system.  The  latest  estimates  show  that  there  are 
over  three  trillion  short  tons  of  coal  still  unmined  in 
the  United  States  and  nearly  5,000,000,000  tons  of 
easily  available  coal,  perhaps  half  of  which  is  to  be 
found  in  the  lands  still  under  Government  ownership 
and  control.  Over  40  per  cent  of  the  landed  area  of 
the  United  States  is  still  owned  by  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment, and  of  this  practically  half  a  billion  acres 
remain  unsurveyed. 

One  of  the  prospecting  activities  of  the  Geological 
Survey  is  that  of  determining  the  location  and  extent 
of  the  phosphate  beds  of  the  country.  Phosphorus 
is  absolutely  essential  to  the  growth  of  the  plant  life 
which  constitutes  the  prime  source  of  the  American 
food  supply.  As  food,  raiment,  and  water  are  the 
three  essentials  ot  human  welfare,  so  nitrogen,  pot- 
ash, and  phosphoric  acid  are  the  absolute  essentials 
of  plant  growth. 

Potash  exists  in  the  rocks  in  unlimited  quantities, 
awaiting  only  the  perfection  of  a  cheap  method  of 
extraction  to  supply  every  need.  The  great  German 
deposits  of  potash  salts  also  afford  an  enormous  sup- 
ply.    Tho  leguminous  plants,  with  their  little  chem- 


124:       THE  AMEEICAN  GOVERNMENT 

ical  laboratories  at  their  roots,  can  take  enough  ni- 
trogen from  the  air  to  supply  this  necessary  element, 
as  can  also  a  recently  discovered  electrochemical 
process.  But  when  the  pliosjjhate  beds  are  gone  no 
one  yet  has  solved  the  problem  of  where  the  world's 
future  supply  of  phosphoric  acid  will  come  from. 
There  are  thousands  of  acres  of  phosphate  beds  in 
the  western  part  of  the  United  States,  and  it  is  the 
aim  of  the  Geological  Survey  so  to  protect  them  that 
they  will  continue  for  many  generations  to  come  to 
supply  the  needs  of  the  crop-growers  of  the  United 
States.  The  Geological  Survey  is  also  prosecuting 
a  potash  search  in  the  West,  and  is  drilling  into  the 
depths  of  the  earth  for  deposits  of  potash  salts, 
which  will  make  the  United  States  independent  of 
Germany  for  this  necessary  fertilizer. 

The  oil  wells  of  the  public  domain  are  also  the  sub- 
ject of  much  study  on  the  part  of  the  officials  of  the 
Survey.  The  petroleum  supply  has  a  different  sta- 
tus from  the  other  mineral  supplies  of  the  country. 
The  oil  deposits  are  entered  under  the  old  placer 
gold  mining  law.  A  man  must  discover  some  min- 
eral before  he  has  a  right  to  the  public  land  on  which 
it  is  located.  If  a  man  thought  he  had  found  oil  and 
had  begun  to  bore  for  it,  some  other  fellow  could  run 
in  and  bore  close  to  him  and  the  one  who  got  oil  first 
would  get  the  right  to  the  property  by  discovery. 
Consequently,  it  was  not  a  profitable  thing  to  gamble 
on  finding  oil  under  such  circumstances.  The  result 
was  that  subterfuges  were  resorted  to.  Gypsum  de- 
posits that  are  commercially  worthless  are  to  be 
found  in  the  oil  territory  of  California.    An  oil  pros- 


THE  GEOLOGICAL  SUEVEY  125 

pector  finds  gypsum  on  a  tract  of  land,  and  claims  it 
by  right  of  discovery,  on  the  ground  that  gypsum  is 
a  mineral  within  the  meaning  of  the  law.  The  law 
requires  that  $500  shall  be  spent  in  the  development 
of  these  tracts,  and  one  may  travel  through  the  oil 
country  and  see  magnificent  gypsum  stairways 
standing  in  the  open.  They  lead  nowhere  but  to  a 
perfect  title  for  oil  lands,  and  are  standing  proof  of 
the  technical  fulfillment  of  the  law  and  the  absolute 
violation  of  its  spirit.  The  Government  now  holds 
several  million  acres  of  oil  lands  withdrawn  from 
public  entry  until  Congress  shall  make  a  new  law 
which  will  protect  the  oil  resources  from  being  gob- 
bled up  by  speculators. 

Not  only  has  the  Geological  Survey  been  a  pros- 
pector and  gatherer  of  important  information  with 
reference  to  the  public  domain  and  concerning  the 
mineral  industries  of  the  country,  but  it  has  been  an 
experimenter  of  the  first  rank  in  solving  problems 
of  conservation.  A  notable  instance  of  this  is  its 
work  of  fostering  industries  for  the  utilization  of  the 
coal  dust  and  slack  coal  from  the  mouths  of  the  coal 
mines  of  the  country.  This  material  was  always  a 
menace  around  the  mouth  of  the  mine,  consisting  of 
coal  dust  and  coal  too  poor  for  shipping  or  for  burn- 
ing in  any  ordinary  grate.  No  one  knows  when  a 
big  pile  of  this  material  will  catch  fire  and  do  untold 
damage.  The  Survey  experts  saw  these  piles  of  un- 
usable coal  and  lent  their  efforts  to  their  utilization. 
In  Europe  such  waste  material  is  pressed  into  blocks 
called  ''briquettes."  The  Survey  installed  experi- 
mental briquette  machines,  and  to-day  the  briquet- 


126       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

ting  industry  has  reached  the  commercial  stage. 
Small  sizes  of  coal,  heretofore  wasted,  are  now  being 
burned  in  specially  constructed  grates.  The  Survey 
also  installed  a  huge  German  briquetting  machine 
for  making  briquettes  out  of  the  unsold  millions  of 
tons  of  lignite  coal  by  simple  pressure  and  without 
the  use  of  a  ''binder,"  the  most  expensive  factor  in 
briquette  making. 

Another  line  of  experimentation  which  promises 
much  for  the  future  was  carried  on  for  a  number  of 
years  by  the  Survey.  Its  investigations  demon- 
strated that  by  using  producer-gas  engines  the 
power  derived  from  a  ton  of  coal  may  be  trebled  as 
compared  with  the  power  derived  from  the  same  ton 
of  coal  through  a  steam  engine.  Furthermore,  the 
very  lowest  grades  of  coal  may  be  used  in  making 
producer-gas,  a  ton  of  such  coal  going  as  far  as  a  ton 
of  the  best  Pocahontas  coal  used  with  steam  power. 
Largely  through  the  educational  work  being  done  by 
the  officials  of  the  Geological  Survey,  it  is  believed, 
the  number  of  producer-gas  engines  in  use  was  quin- 
tupled in  a  single  year.  The  general  adoption  of 
producer-gas  power  would  result  in  the  saving  of 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  annually,  and,  by 
making  the  cheapest  grades  of  coal  available,  would 
extend  industrial  enterprises  into  sections  of  the 
country  heretofore  considered  to  be  without  fuel  and 
would  further  extend  the  date  of  the  exhaustion  of 
the  coal  supply  to  a  period  far  beyond  the  interest  of 
the  living  generation. 

The  wonderful  expansion  in  the  use  of  concrete 
and  structural  steel  and  other  fire-resistant  building 


THE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  127 

materials,  which  has  come  about  in  recent  years,  has 
been  due  in  a  large  degree  to  the  exhaustive  experi- 
mental and  educative  work  of  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey. These  investigations  were  made  primarily  for 
the  purpose  of  ascertaining  for  the  Supervising 
Architect  of  the  Treasury,  the  Engineering  Board  of 
the  War  Department,  the  Isthmian  Canal  Commis- 
sion, and  the  Navy,  the  behavior  of  concrete,  reen- 
forced  concrete,  clay  products,  stone,  and  miscella- 
neous building  materials,  under  the  action  of  fire, 
water,  acids,  alkali,  stress,  and  other  destructive 
agencies.  The  result  of  these  investigations,  how- 
ever, has  been  published  widely.  The  investigations 
embrace  studies  of  relative  cost,  durability,  and 
strength,  and  give  every  sort  of  information  with 
reference  to  structural  materials  needed  in  the  erec- 
tion of  any  sort  of  structure,  from  a  bungalow  to  a 
40-story  skyscraper.  Since  1910  this  work  has  been 
continued  by  the  Bureau  of  Standards.  The  work 
of  investigating  mine  accidents  and  testing  fuels  has 
been  transferred  from  the  Survey  to  the  new  Bureau 
of  Mines,  whose  field  of  operation  covers  the  tech- 
nical work  of  mining. 

Eecords  of  the  daily  flow  of  streams  have  been  col- 
lected at  more  than  1,500  points  throughout  the 
United  States  by  the  Geological  Survey,  and  at  pres- 
ent 500  stations  for  stream  measurements  are  being 
maintained.  Studies  have  been  made  of  their  mean 
flow,  their  flood  stages,  their  low-water  marks,  and 
all  other  essential  data  which  will  serve  the  devel- 
opers of  power,  the  irrigationists,  the  swamp  drain- 
ers, and  the  deep  waterway  diggers.     The  Survey 


128       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

is  often  put  to  a  severe  test  in  its  efforts  to  measure 
correctly  the  flow  of  a  river,  and  many  unusual  con- 
trivances have  been  devised  to  measure  the  depth 
and  velocity  of  water  at  a  given  point  in  a  river  bed. 
One  may  wonder  of  what  practical  use  such  studies 
are,  but  a  hundred  activities  depend  upon  them. 
The  Government  is  spending  over  $60,000,000  on 
irrigation  projects,  and  is  expecting  to  get  three 
times  as  much  back  in  national  wealth,  and  the  basic 
water  resources  investigations  made  by  the  Survey 
are  absolutely  essential  to  the  success  of  this  work. 
It  is  as  important  that  the  irrigationist  know  the 
water  flow  on  which  he  bases  his  project  as  it  is  that 
the  architect  shall  know  the  character  of  the  founda- 
tion upon  which  he  rears  his  skyscraper.  The  same 
may  be  said  of  water-power  development.  No  river 
and  harbor  improvement  program  can  be  carried  out 
successfully  without  details  as  to  silt  deposits, 
stream  flow,  and  low-water  marks.  The  Survey  has 
been  making  these  investigations  for  more  than  15 
years,  and  it  is  largely  upon  the  data  thus  gathered 
that  Congress  provides  for  the  deepening  of  rivers 
throughout  the  United  States. 

The  activities  of  the  Geological  Survey  show  re- 
sults in  many  unexpected  places.  One  would  hardly 
look  for  effects  of  this  work  in  the  monetary  affairs 
of  the  Government,  but  it  has  recently  developed  into 
an  important  factor  in  maintaining  a  stable  money 
market.  The  work  of  the  Survey  in  the  single  little 
arm  of  Alaska  known  as  Seward  Peninsula  may 
have  had  some  bearing  on  the  development  of  a  gold 
supply  which  yields  a  steady  stream  of  from  5,000,- 


THE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  129 

000  to  7,000,000  dollars'  worth  of  gold  every  year. 
This  is  enough  to  pay  the  entire  purchase  price  of 
Alaska.  The  Survey  has  but  little  more  than  begun 
its  investigations  in  this  giant  young  Territory,  but 
it  has  already  ascertained  enough  to  show  that  it  is 
the  biggest  land-buying  bargain  a  nation  ever  drove, 
if  we  except  the  great  Louisiana  Purchase. 

The  work  which  is  now  beinr  lone  by  the  Bureau 
of  Mines  f^nnerly  was  part  of  the  activities  of  the 
Geological  Survey.  How  important  is  the  matter 
of  protecting  the  mining  industry  of  the  United 
States  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  65  per  cent  of  the 
traffic  of  the  railroads  of  the  country  originates  in 
the  mines,  and  that  about  2,000,000  wage-earners  are 
constantly  engaged  in  mining  operations.  Without 
the  products  of  the  mine  the  factories  could  not  have 
been  built;  the  railways  never  could  have  been  con- 
structed. But  the  miner  has  been  wasteful  in  his 
methods,  and  in  some  cases  has  taken  out  as  low  as 
only  40  per  cent  of  the  coal  in  the  mine.  The  differ- 
ence between  the  greater  cost  of  clean  mining,  as 
compared  with  the  lesser  cost  of  wasteful  mining, 
often  means  the  difference  between  profitable  and 
unprofitable  operation.  One  of  the  tasks  assigned 
to  the  Bureau  of  Mines  is  to  attempt  to  discover 
methods  of  operation  whereby  it  will  be  profitable  to 
take  practically  all  of  the  coal  out  of  a  mine.  The 
coal  production  of  the  country  now  aggregates  a 
half  billion  tons  every  year,  and  it  is  calculated  that 
the  annual  waste  of  coal  amounts  almost  to  half  as 
much. 

In  addition  to  investigating  economical  methods 


130       TPIE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

of  mining,  the  Bureau  of  Mines  is  assigned  the  task 
of  trying  to  determine  the  conditions  which  lead  up 
to  mine  explosions  and  the  methods  of  preventing 
them.  It  seeks  to  determine  what  explosives  can  be 
used  with  least  risk  in  mines  where  gas  or  inflamma- 
ble dust  may  be  found ;  what  conditions  permit  the 
safe  operation  of  electric  equipment  in  coal  mines; 
what  types  of  mine  lamps  are  safest,  most  efficient, 
and  least  liable  to  produce  explosions ;  and  what  sort 
of  artificial  breathing  apparatus  is  best  suited  for 
use  in  the  rescue  of  victims  of  mine  disasters. 

In  the  prosecution  of  investigations  looking  to  the 
ascertainment  of  what  explosives  are  least  danger- 
ous in  coal  mining,  large  explosion-proof  closed 
tubes  are  used,  with  only  such  openings  as  will  per^ 
mit  the  engineers  to  watch  an  explosion.  All  con- 
ditions found  in  mines  are  simulated  and  the  explo- 
sives on  the  market  are  carefully  tested  under  every 
ima^o-inable  kind  of  working  conditions.  The  results 
of  these  tests  are  used  in  making  up  a  list  of  such  ex- 
plosives as  are  regarded  as  safe  in  mining  opera- 
tions. The  list  of  '* permissible  explosives"  num- 
bers about  50. 

The  investigations  and  educational  work  in  con- 
nection with  the  use  of  artificial  breathing  appara- 
tus and  other  types  of  mine  rescue  equipment  have 
been  useful  in  developing  better  methods  for  using 
such  equipment.  Thirteen  branch  mine  rescue  ex- 
periment stations  have  been  established.  These  sta- 
tions guard  the  lives  of  miners  and  the  property  of 
the  mines  in  the  same  way  that  a  fire  department 
guards  the  property  of  a  city.     There  are  emergency 


THE  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  131 

cars  fitted  up  with  all  sorts  of  rescue  equipment. 
Not  only  do  the  bureau  experts  rush  to  every  mine 
explosion  and  enter  the  mines  in  the  work  of  rescue, 
but  they  are  training  thousands  of  miners  and  mine 
foremen  in  the  use  of  the  life-saving  apparatus. 

The  Geological  Survey  is  less  than  a  third  of  a 
century  olc  It  was  started  with  an  appropriation 
of  only  $100,000,  and  its  main  purpose  then  was  to 
gather  data  and  to  study  fundamental  problems  with 
reference  to  the  geology  of  the  public  domain.  Since 
then  it  has  expanded  its  work  in  many  directions, 
was  the  forerunner  of  the  conservation  movement  in 
the  United  States,  and  has  made  itself  one  of  the 
most  useful  of  all  the  bureaus  of  the  American  Gov- 
ernment. It  now  spends  approximately  $1,500,000 
a  year  in  carrying  forward  its  activities. 


X. 

THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTUEE. 

No  branch  of  tlie  executive  service  of  the  United 
States  has  contributed  more  to  the  welfare  of  the 
people  of  the  country  than  the  Department  of  Agri- 
cultrre.  Under  the  influence  of  the  gospel  of  pro- 
gressive farming  the  yield  of  wheat  has  increased 
from  10  bushels  per  acre  in  1866  to  an  average  of 
15  bushpls  under  present  farming  conditions.  Corn 
now  yields  about  30  bushels  to  the  acre  during  an 
average  year,  as  compared  with  25  bushels  a  half 
century  ago.  Throughout  all  the  list  of  plant  and 
meat  crops  the  same  ratio  of  expansion  has  taken 
place. 

But  great  as  has  been  the  growth  in  the  past  50 
years,  it  is  believed  by  the  experts  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  that  this  expansion  will  be  much 
more  than  duplicated  during  the  coming  50  years. 
A  good  farmer  to-day  is  able  to  produce  an  average 
of  25  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre,  60  bushels  of  corn, 
and  a  bale  and  a  quarter  of  cotton.  If  the  average 
farm  crop  of  a  half  century  hence  is  no  better  than 
that  produced  by  the  good  farmer  of  to-day,  the  total 
value  of  the  crops  at  that  date  will  be  many  millions 
of  dollars  greater  than  it  is  to-day. 

133 


134       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

The  increased  value  of  cotton  on  tlie  basis  of  a 
bale  and  a  quarter  to  the  acre  as  compared  with 
the  present  yield  of  two-fifths  of  a  bale  would  snow 
an  increase  in  value  in  the  cotton  crop  alone  amount- 
ing to  more  than  $1,250,000,000.  Secretary  James 
Wilson  thinks  there  will  be  little  difficulty  in  increas- 
ing by  half  the  yield  of  every  staple  crop  grown  in 
the  United  States,  and  that  the  remarkable  progress 
in  educational  work  among  the  farmers  of  the  coun- 
try made  during  the  past  decade  will  grow  in  amaz- 
ing proportions  during  the  coming  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury. 

While  the  Department  of  Agriculture  is  develop- 
ing the  farms  and  vegetable  crops,  it  is  not  over- 
looking the  importance  of  expanding  the  Hve-stock 
industry.  The  live-stock  interests  of  the  Nation  are 
looked  after  by  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry. 
This  bureau  has  charge  of  meat  inspection,  national 
quarantine  regulations  for  live  stock,  the  study  of 
animal  diseases  and  their  relation  to  the  human  race, 
and  investigations  in  stock  raising  and  dairying. 

One-fourth  of  the  dairy  cows  of  the  United  States 
do  not  pay  market  price  for  their  feed.  If  the  aver- 
age cow  on  the  American  farm  can  be  induced  to 
furnish  just  5  pounds  of  butter  more  a  year,  it  will 
add  $30,000,000  annually  to  the  productive  capacity 
of  the  American  dairy.  If  the  hens  of  the  country 
each  can  be  induced  to  lay  1  dozen  eggs  more  a  year, 
they  will  increase  the  annual  value  of  the  egg  sup- 
ply to  the  extent  of  $50,000,000. 

The  Government  expends  about  $3,000,000  a  year 
on  meat  inspection,  inspectors  being  maintained  at 


DEPAETMENT  OF  AGRICULTUEE     135 

about  a  thousand  establishments  in  237  cities  and 
towns.  Each  year  about  50,000,000  live  animals  are 
examined  before  slaughter,  and  approximately  7,- 
000,000,000  pounds  of  meat  is  inspected  after  slaugh- 
ter. Nearly  a  million  animals  are  condemned  an- 
nually, either  in  whole  or  in  part.  Tuberculosis  is 
the  cause  of  about  46  per  cent  of  the  condemnations 
of  cattle  products  and  96  per  cent  of  the  condemna- 
tions of  hog  products. 

The  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  also  maintains  an 
experiment  station  at  Bethesda,  Md.,  for  investiga- 
tions in  animal  diseases,  and  has  an  experimental 
farm  at  Beltsville,  Md.,  where  work  in  dairying  and 
the  breeding  and  feeding  of  live  stock  and  poultry 
is  carried  on. 

This  bureau  also  has  charge  of  the  work  of  eradi- 
cating animal  diseases.  It  has  been  fighting  the 
Texas  fever  tick  for  years,  and  is  gradually  suc- 
ceeding in  exterminating  this  dangerous  foe  of  the 
beef  industry.  The  bureau  recently  found  that  over 
18  per  cent  of  the  cattle  in  the  District  of  Columbia 
were  affected  with  tuberculosis.  A  quarantine  was 
established  after  the  elimination  of  the  affected 
cattle,  with  the  result  that  in  a  year  or  two  dairy 
stock  in  the  District  have  been  practically  freed  from 
the  ravages  of  this  disease.  The  bureau  has  also 
produced  a  highly  effective  serum  treatment  for 
the  prevention  of  hog  cholera,  by  means  of  which 
it  is  believed  that  the  tremendous  losses  from  this 
disease  ma>  he  greatly  reduced  and  in  time  entirely 
prevented.  In  one  experiment  there  was  a  lot  of 
35  pigs.    Twenty-two  of  these  were  vaccinated  with 


136      THE   AMERICAN   GOVERNMENT 

the  preventive  serum,  four  were  inoculated  with 
virulent  hog-cholera  blood,  so  as  to  give  them  the  dis- 
ease, and  nine  were  untreated.  The  four  inoculated 
pigs  contracted  the  disease  and  died,  as  did  all  nine  of 
the  untreated  ones.  Every  one  of  the  22  vaccinated 
pigs  remained  well.  The  bureau  also  prepares  and 
distributes  vaccine  for  the  prevention  of  blackleg 
in  cattle,  to  the  extent  of  about  a  million  doses  a 
year.  Likewise  it  distributes  tuberculin  for  the 
diagnosis  of  tuberculosis  in  cattle  and  mallein  for 
the  diagnosis  of  glanders  in  horses. 

The  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  has  also  had  an 
important  part  in  the  work  of  sanitary  improvement 
of  milk  supplies,  and  has  cooperated  with  the  author- 
ities of  many  cities  to  that  end. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  bureaus  in  the  depart- 
ment is  that  of  Plant  Industry.  This  bureau  studies 
the  diseases  of  plants  as  carefully  as  physicians 
study  the  diseases  of  men.  It  not  only  disseminates 
information  with  reference  to  the  diseases,  but  is 
constantly  experimenting  in  its  efforts  to  produce 
specific  remedies.  For  instance,  it  formerly  was  the 
custom  of  apple  growers  to  spray  their  trees  with 
copper  compounds.  These  were  found  to  be  injuri- 
ous, and  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  worked  out 
a  new  method  of  spraying  with  noninjurious  sul- 
phur compounds.  In  its  investigation  of  the  fruit 
spot-and-leaf  disease  known  as  cedar  rust  or  orange 
rust  of  the  apple,  a  remarkable  fact  has  been  dis- 
covered. The  fungus  which  causes  the  disease  must 
have  each  alternate  generation  on  the  red  cedar. 
If  the  red  cedar  is  eliminated  from  the  vicinity  of 


DEPAETMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE     137 

apple  orchards  tliis  disease  is  easily  stamped  out. 
This  method  finds  a  parallel  in  the  mosquito  theory; 
of  yellow  fever  in  the  human  race. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  activities  of  the 
Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  is  its  work  in  ransack- 
ing the  world  for  new  crops  for  the  American  agri- 
culturists. It  has  brought  dates  from  Egypt  and 
the  oases  of  the  Sahara,  durum  wheat  from  Russia, 
millet  from  Siberia,  wild  peaches  from  China,  and 
many  other  plants  from  every  region  of  the  world. 
In  addition  to  this,  it  has  been  carrying  on  a  process 
of  cross-breeding  in  plants  which  has  been  of  inesti- 
mable economic  value  to  the  American  people.  It 
has  been  estimated  that  the  introduction  of  durum 
wheat  is  worth  millions  of  dollars.  One  of  the  re- 
markable successes  of  the  bureau  in  cross-breeding 
has  been  the  development  of  an  orange  hardier 
than  the  Florida  orange  by  crossing  that  variety 
with  a  worthless  but  hardy  orange  tree  from 
Japan. 

That  the  bureau  has  a  wide  field  of  research  in 
the  adaptation  of  plants  for  the  needs  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  there  are  more 
than  100,000  different  species  of  plants  in  the  world, 
of  which  less  than  5,000  are  utilized  by  mankind. 
The  people  of  the  United  States  use  only  about 
300  kinds,  except  in  the  most  limited  way.  One 
needs  to  go  no  further  than  the  rice  industry  to  find 
what  wealth  may  be  produced  by  an  introduced  crop. 
There  are  now  upward  of  700,000  acres  of  rice  grown 
annually  in  the  United  States  and  the  farm  value 
of  the  crop  amounts  to  $16,000,000. 


138       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

In  its  efforts  to  eliminate  **bad  burners"  from 
cigar  stands,  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  has  con- 
structed a  mechanical  smoker,  consisting  of  a  series 
of  glass  tubes  so  arranged  that  each  smokes  a  cigar 
just  as  a  man  would,  except  that  the  ** puffs"  are  of 
exactly  uniform  strength  in  each  tube.  A  carefully 
adjusted  aspirator  draws  the  proper  intermittent 
current  of  air  through  the  cigar,  and  accurate  obser- 
vations are  made  to  determine  the  rapidity  with 
which  each  one  burns.  Each  cigar  is  carefully 
scored  upon  the  several  points  which  go  to  make 
up  a  good  record.  Some  burn  evenly,  some  rapidly, 
and  some  down  on  one  side.  In  others  the  wrapper 
puckers  ahead  of  the  fire,  and  a  black,  metallic-look- 
ing ring  forms  around  the  cigar.  These  are  unde- 
sirable. The  character  of  the  ash  is  also  tested, 
and  if  it  flakes  badly,  or  is  dark  and  dull,  the  cigar  is 
not  a  good  one. 

The  bureau  also  has  charge  of  farming  experi- 
ments and  investigations.  It  is  claimed  that  by  in- 
telligent methods  of  cultivation  millions  of  acres 
of  arid  land  can  be  made  to  produce  the  finest  kinds 
of  crops,  and  that  without  irrigation.  The  impor- 
tant essential  is  to  plow  very  deep,  and  to  plow  very 
often,  thus  keeping  loose  soil  at  the  surface,  through 
which  the  moisture  below  can  not  escape. 

The  work  of  mapping,  classifying,  and  investi- 
gating the  soils  of  the  agricultural  districts  of  the 
United  States  is  intrusted  to  the  Bureau  of  Soils. 
This  bureau  is  engaged  in  making  detailed  maps  of 
important  areas  throughout  the  better  developed 
sections  of  the  country,  and  reconnoissance  maps, 


DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE     139 

showing  less  detail,  of  the  Great  Plains  region  and 
other  sparsely  settled  districts.  It  also  studies  fer- 
tilizer requirements  and  the  relation  of  different 
types  of  soil  to  crops,  with  a  view  to  determining 
what  crops  can  be  grown  most  advantageously. 
Seven  hundred  different  types  of  soil  have  been 
found  in  the  areas  so  far  surveyed. 

The  United  States  is  the  third  largest  forest  owner 
in  the  world,  being  outranked  only  by  Russia  and 
Canada.  The  area  of  the  National  Forests  of  the 
United  States  is  almost  200,000,000  acres,  and  they 
contain  more  than  500,000,000,000  feet  of  merchant- 
able timber.  All  this  is  watched  over  by  the  Forest 
Service  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  which  has 
a  corps  of  2,000  trained  men.  Each  National  Forest 
is  in  charge  of  a  supervisor,  and  is  patroled  by 
forest  rangers,  who  are  stationed  at  points  where 
they  may  best  attend  to  the  needs  of  the  public  and 
protect  the  forests  from  injury  by  trespass  or  fires. 
In  addition  to  the  regular  ranger  stations,  there  are 
also  fire  lookout  stations,  and  these  are  connected 
with  central  stations  by  telephone  lines ;  where  it  is 
not  possible  to  build  such  lines  they  are  provided 
with  the  heliograph  and  other  systems  of  signals. 
It  is  the  aim  of  the  Forest  Service  so  to  protect  and 
utilize  the  forests  of  the  country  that  there  may 
be  a  continual  supply  of  timber  for  use  in  the  in- 
dustries and  that  the  land  may  add  most  to  the 
public  welfare. 

The  insects  of  the  country  annually  destroy  farm 
property  worth  a  billion  dollars.  The  Texas  fever 
tick  in  a  year  kills  cattle  worth  $60,000,000,  and  the 


140       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

ravages  of  the  Hessian  fly  and  the  joint  worm  may 
cnt  the  value  of  a  wheat  crop  to  an  even  greater 
extent.  The  work  of  combating  the  insect  and  simi- 
lar pests  in  the  United  States  is  assigned  to  the 
Bureau  of  Entomology.  This  bureau,  so  to  speak, 
has  set  the  dogs  on  insect  pests  by  bringing  from 
all  parts  of  the  world  other  insects  which  will  eat 
them  and  destroy  their  eggs.  One  of  the  principal 
fights  this  bureau  has  on  its  hands  at  the  present 
time  is  the  effort  to  kill  out  the  gypsy  moth  and  the 
brown-tail  moth. 

One  of  the  methods  of  combating  these  two  moths 
has  been  to  bring  from  other  countries  parasites  and 
predacious  insect  enemies  which  will  attack  the  moth ' 
caterpillars  and  destroy  them.  A  predatory  beetle 
from  Europe  has  multiplied  rapidly  and  in  some 
localities  has  been  able  to  give  the  gypsy  moth  a 
tussle  for  supremacy.  A  parasitic  fly  was  brought 
over  in  1906,  and  in  four  years  has  increased  fifty- 
fold  a  year,  and  has  spread  a  distance  of  from  10  to 
12  miles  in  every  direction.  It  has  not  only  gone 
after  the  gypsy  and  brown-tail  moths,  but  it  has 
turned  its  attention  to  the  fall  web-worm  and  the 
tussock  moth,  which  through  the  autumn  afford  food 
for  generations  of  parasites  at  a  time  when  the 
gypsy  and  brown-tail  moths  are  not  available  as  a 
food  supply.  Still  another  species  has  been  found 
to  attack  the  caterpillars  of  the  cabbage  butterfly, 
in  addition  to  gypsy  and  brown-tail  moths.  Another 
parasite  attacks  the  eggs  of  the  gypsy  moth.  Some 
of  the  insect  allies  introduced  by  the  bureau  make  a 
business  of  destroying  the  larvae  of  the  offending 


DEPAETMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE     141 

moths,  making  tlieir  own  nests  in  the  cocoons  of 
the  moth. 

The  bureau  also  conducts  an  unrelentingcampaign 
against  the  codling  moth,  the  orange  thrip,  and  every 
other  kind  of  insect  enemy  of  the  cultivated  crops 
and  the  trees  of  the  United  States.  It  is  one  of 
the  leaders  in  the  campaign  against  the  house  fly 
and  the  mosquito. 

The  bureau  renders  services  to  other  countries 
in  return  for  their  favors  in  furnishing  parasites 
which  prey  upon  the  insect  pests  of  this  country. 
Lately  it  has  sent  ladybug  beetles  to  Spain  to  eat 
the  Spanish  mealy  bug,  dog-tick  parasites  to  South 
Africa  for  combating  the  dog  tick,  and  bumblebees 
to  the  Philippines  for  improving  the  clover  crop. 

The  bureau  known  as  the  Biological  Survey  em- 
ploys itself  in  investigations  concerning  the  eco- 
nomic relations  of  birds  and  mammals  to  the  work 
of  the  farmers  and  stockmen  of  the  country.  The 
rat  is  now  known  to  be  responsible  for  the  dissemi- 
nation of  the  bubonic  plague,  and,  in  addition,  it 
annually  destroys  millions  of  dollars '  worth  of  prod- 
ucts in  the  granaries  and  storehouses  of  the  United 
States.  The  Survey  has  shown  how  to  destroy  this 
pest  effectively  and  economically.  It  is  now  study- 
ing the  native  animals  which  harbor  the  ticks  by 
which  the  dreaded  spotted  fever  is  transmitted  to 
human  beings. 

The  Survey  has  been  cooperating  with  the  Forest 
Service  in  the  destruction  of  chipmunks  and  mice, 
which  are  so  destructive  to  the  seeds  planted  in  re- 
forestation work.     It  has  likewise  assisted  in  the 


142       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

California  crusade  against  the  ground  squirrel.  X 
preparation  of  barley  covered  with  starch  contain- 
ing strjxhnine  is  used  for  destroying  the  squirrels. 
More  than  50,000  acres  were  baited  in  this  way  in 
one  season  and  the  squirrels  were  destroyed  at  a 
cost  of  from  21/2  to  6  cents  an  acre.  It  has  been 
demonstrated  that  35  prairie  dogs  will  destroy  as 
much  vegetation  as  is  necessary  to  maintain  a  sheep 
during  a  season.  The  Biological  Survey  is  trying 
to  find  a  method  of  poisoning  these  little  rodents 
without  endangering  the  lives  of  valuable  birds  like 
shore  larks  and  longspurs.  The  Survey  has  charge 
of  the  enforcement  of  the  law  prohibiting  animal 
and  bird  pests  from  being  imported  into  the  United 
States.  Not  long  ago  a  mongoose,  one  of  the  most 
prolific  animals  known,  and  a  very  dangerous 
species,  was  surreptitiously  brought  into  the  coun- 
try at  Everett,  Wash,  It  was  discovered  and  killed 
a  few  weeks  later.  About  the  same  time  it  was  dis- 
closed that  the  eggs  of  the  tern  were  brought  into 
the  United  States  at  New  York  and  sold  there  in  a 
half -decomposed  state  under  the  name  of  Australian 
booby.  This  fraudulent  traffic  was  promptly  sup- 
pressed. Some  years  ago  a  lot  of  starlings  were 
liberated  by  private  parties  in  Central  Park,  New 
York.  They  now  range  as  far  north  as  Springfield, 
Mass.,  and  as  far  south  as  central  New  Jersey.  The 
starling  is  a  pest  in  foreign  countries,  and,  fearing 
a  duplication  of  the  history  of  the  English  sparrow, 
the  Biological  Survey  is  planning  to  prevent  further 
distribution  of  the  bird  if  it  proves  to  be  a  pest  here. 
The  Survey  is  also  engaged  in  an  effort  to  promote 


DEPAETMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE     143 

international  cooperation  in  regulating  traffic  in 
plumage  birds. 

The  work  of  spreading  the  gospel  of  good  farm- 
ing has  reached  enormous  proportions.  During  the 
last  year  more  than  25,000,000  copies  of  bulletins, 
circulars,  and  reports  were  distributed  to  the  farm- 
ers of  the  country.  After  nearly  a  million  copies 
of  the  Farmer's  Bulletin  on  the  economical  use  of 
meat  in  the  homes  had  been  distributed  gratis, 
nearly  50,000  copies  were  sold.  The  Bureau  of  Sta- 
tistics gathers  and  publishes  information  with  refer- 
ence to  the  crops  of  the  country.  It  has  a  corps  of 
135,000  crop  reporters.  Their  reports  are  summar- 
ized monthly  by  a  board  of  the  highest  officials  of 
the  department,  and  the  work  is  guarded  with  the 
greatest  care  in  order  to  prevent  the  information 
from  getting  out  ahead  of  time,  to  be  used  in  specu- 
lation. 

There  are  about  60  agricultural  experiment  sta- 
tions in  the  United  States  which  are  engaged  in  co- 
operating with  the  department  in  disseminating  agri- 
cultural instruction.  They  issue  annually  some  500 
publications  which  are  sent  to  nearly  a  million  ad- 
dresses. Each  of  these  stations  conducts  some  par- 
ticular line  of  investigation,  and  at  the  end  c>f  the 
year  their  aggregate  work  has  resulted  in  the  addi- 
tion of  a  vast  amount  of  valuable  information  to  the 
literature  of  agricultural  science. 

More  than  2,000,000  farmers  annually  attend  the 
farmer's  institutes  which  are  held  jointly  by  the 
State  and  National  Agricultural  Departments. 
Field  demonstrations  are  also  given,  and  the  Corn 


144       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Clubs,  in  whicli  school  boys  are  awarded  premmms 
for  the  best  results  in  growing  corn,  have  resulted 
in  creating  an  unprecedented  interest  among  the 
youths  of  the  country  in  farming  operations. 

The  department  also  maintains  a  Good  Roads 
Bureau  where  everything  pertaining  to  progres- 
sive road  construction  and  maintenance  is  studied 
and  experimented  with,  and  where  a  campaign  of 
education  is  waged  which,  it  is  hoped,  will  serve  in 
a  quarter  of  a  century  to  free  the  American  people 
from  an  annual  mud  tax  estimated  at  $200,000,000. 


XI. 

THE  WEATHER  BUREAU. 

No  other  country  has  such  an  extensive  system  of 
weather  investigation  and  forecast  as  the  United 
States.  Spending  more  than  a  million  and  a  half 
dollars  a  year  to  be  weatherwise,  Uncle  Sam  is  learn- 
ing many  secrets  of  the  atmosphere  that  have  never 
been  known  before.  The  Mount  Weather  station 
of  the  Weather  Bureau,  situated  in  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains  of  Virginia,  has  been  equipped  with  every 
sort  of  instrument  human  ingenuity  can  devise  to 
pull  down  the  secrets  of  the  upper  air. 

The  Weather  Bureau  gets  reports  from  more  than 
3,500  land  stations,  2,000  ocean  vessels,  and  some 
50  foreign  stations.  The  information  which  comes 
to  the  Weather  Bureau  from  all  these  places  enables 
the  forecaster  to  venture  a  prediction  about  what  the 
weather  will  be  for  the  next  36  to  48  hours,  and  in 
a  general  way  for  a  week  in  advance. 

It  is  said  that  more  than  80  per  cent  of  the  winds, 
rains,  and  storms  follow  beaten  paths,  behaving 
upon  established  principles,  and  doing  just  as  the 
weather  man  expects  them  to  do.  Sometimes,  how- 
ever, a  storm  will  refuse  to  follow  the  beaten  paths 
and  it  is  then  that  the  weather  man  fails.    The  aver- 

145 


146       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

age  man  remembers  the  one  failure  rather  than  the 
five  good  forecasts  in  which  the  weather  man  cor- 
rectly predicts  the  weather.  The  weather  forecasts 
are  based  upon  simultaneous  observations  of  local 
weather  conditions  taken  daily  at  8  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  at  8  o'clock  in  the  evening,  Eastern 
time,  at  about  200  regular  observing  stations 
throughout  the  United  States  and  the  West  Indies, 
and  from  the  reports  received  daily  from  various 
other  places  in  the  Western  Hemisphere.  The  re- 
sults of  these  observations  are  telegraphed  to  the 
Weather  Bureau  at  Washington,  where  they  are 
charted  for  study  and  interpretation  by  experts. 

A  complete  telegraphic  report  includes  data  de- 
scribing the  temperature,  atmospheric  pressure, 
precipitation,  direction  of  the  wind,  state  of  the 
weather,  wind  velocity,  the  kind  and  amount  of 
clouds,  and  the  direction  of  their  movement.  From 
these  data  the  forecaster,  by  comparison  with  pre- 
ceding reports,  is  able  to  trace  the  path  of  the 
storm  area  from  the  storm's  first  appearance  to  the 
moment  of  observation,  and  approximately  to  de- 
termine and  forecast  their  subsequent  courses  and 
the  occurrence  of  other  weather  conditions.  Fore- 
cast centers  are  also  established  at  Chicago,  New 
Orleans,  Denver,  San  Francisco,  and  Portland,  Ore. 

Within  two  hours  after  the  morning  observa- 
tions have  been  taken  the  forecasts  are  telegraphed 
from  the  forecast  stations  to  more  than  2,300  prin- 
cipal distributing  points,  where  they  are  further  dis- 
seminated by  mail,  telegraph,  and  telephone.  The 
forecasts  are  mailed  to  135,000  addresses  a  day  and 


THE  WEATHER  BUREAU  147 

delivered  to  nearly  4,000,000  telephone  subscribers 
within  an  hour  from  the  time  the  prediction  is  made. 

In  addition  to  this  service  there  is  what  is  known 
as  the  climatological  service,  which  collects  data 
with  reference  to  temperature  and  rainfall  and 
crops  season  conditions.  During  the  winter  months 
a  publication  known  as  the  Snow  and  Ice  Bulletin 
is  issued,  showing  the  area  covered  by  snow,  the 
depth  of  the  snow,  the  thickness  of  ice  in  rivers,  and 
other  matters  reported  upon  from  every  section  of 
the  country.  This  publication  is  of  especial  interest 
to  those  interested  in  the  winter  wheat  crop,  to  ice 
dealers,  to  the  manufacturers  of  rubber  goods  and 
other  articles,  the  sale  of  which  is  largelj^  aifected 
by  the  presence  or  absence  of  snow  and  ice. 

The  extent  to  which  the  work  of  the  Weather 
Bureau  affects  the  daily  life  of  the  people  is  \'ery 
great,  and  is  said  to  be  increasing  yearly.  Perhaps 
the  most  directly  valuable  service  rendered  is  that 
of  the  warnings  of  storms  and  hurricanes  issued  for 
the  benefit  of  marine  interests.  These  warnings  are 
displayed  at  nearly  300  points  along  the  Atlantic, 
Pacific,  and  Gulf  coasts,  and  the  shores  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  including  every  port  and  harbor  of  any  con- 
siderable importance.  Scarcely  a  storm  of  marked 
danger  to  maritime  interests  has  occurred  for  /ears 
of  which  ample  warnings  have  not  been  issued  from 
12  to  24  hours  in  advance. 

The  warnings  displayed  for  a  single  hurricane  are 
known  to  have  detained  in  port  on  the  Atlantic  coast 
vessels  valued  with  their  cargoes  at  more  than  $30,- 
000,000.     The  warnings  of  sudden  and  destructive 


148       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

changes  in  temperature  are  issued  from  24  to  36 
hours  in  advance,  and  are  disseminated  throughout 
the  threatened  regions  by  Weather  Bureau  flags  and 
otherwise.  The  warnings  issued  for  a  single  cold 
wave  are  said  to  have  saved  over  $3,000,000  of  prop- 
erty from  injury  and  destruction.  The  warnings  of 
frost  and  freezing  weather  are  of  great  interest  to 
the  growers  of  fruit,  tobacco,  cranberries,  and  mar- 
ket-garden products.  The  value  of  the  orange 
blooms,  vegetables,  and  strawberries  protected  and 
saved  on  a  single  night  in  a  small  district  in  Florida 
was  estimated  at  more  than  $100,000. 

The  publication  of  river  and  flood  forecasts  based 
upon  reports  issued  by  the  500  river  and  rainfall 
stations  upon  one  occasion  resulted  in  the  saving 
of  live  stock  and  other  property  to  the  estimated 
value  of  $15,000,000,  when  the  approach  of  a  flood 
in  the  Mississippi  was  forecasted  by  the  bureau  a 
week  in  advance.  Railroad  companies  make  con- 
tinued use  of  weather  forecasts  in  all  their  shipping 
business.  Perishable  products  are  protected  against 
extremes  of  temperature  by  icing  or  heating.  Often- 
times shipments  of  perishable  goods  are  hustled 
forward  when  it  is  found  possible  to  get  them  to 
their  destination  in  advance  of  expected  unfavorable 
temperature  conditions.  When  this  can  not  be  done, 
goods  in  transit  are  run  into  roundhouses  for  pro- 
tection. Bananas  require  very  careful  handling 
and  must  be  kept  at  a  temperature  ranging  from  58° 
to  65°,  and  the  banana  shipper  keeps  close  watch  on 
the  weather  map.  The  meatman  tries  to  ship  his 
products  in  cold  weather,  while  the  movement  of 


OBSERVATION  TOWER  AT  WEATHER  BUREAU. 


THE  WEATHER  BUREAU  149 

live  stock  by  freight  is  avoided  when  a  hot  wave  is 
forecasted. 

Temperature  forecasts  and  cold-wave  warnings 
are  closely  watched  by  brewers,  winemakers,  and 
manufacturers  of  soft  drinks.  Wine  shipments  are 
usually  withheld  until  danger  from  cold  is  passed, 
as  a  slight  frosting  causes  the  tartaric  acid  in  wine 
to  crystallize  and  precipitate.  Many  brewers  hold 
beer  shipments  when  the  distance  is  more  than  60 
miles  and  a  minimum  of  20°  is  expected.  With 
notice  of  an  approaching  cold  wave,  greenhouses 
are  closed  and  boilers  fired.  Large  stockyards  drain 
their  mains.  Gasoline  engines  are  drained.  Work 
in  concrete  is  stopped.  Brewing  companies  and  ice 
factories  take  care  of  exposed  ammonia  condensers. 
Railway  companies  arrange  for  more  heat  in  fruit 
cars.  Natural  gas  companies  turn  a  large  amount 
of  gas  into  their  pipe  lines.  Merchants  curtail  their 
advertisements.  Coal  dealers  supply  partial  orders 
to  all  customers  instead  of  full  orders  to  a  few. 
Ice  factories  reduce  their  output.  The  dredging 
of  sand  and  gravel  ceases,  and  iron  ore  piled  up  for 
shipment  is  placed  in  the  holds  of  vessels  to  pre- 
vent the  wet  masses  from  freezing  solid.  Charity 
organizations  prepare  to  meet  demands  for  in- 
creased food  and  fuel,  and  thus  minimize  suffering 
among  the  poor. 

Rain  forecasts  protect  the  raisin  crop,  enable  the 
fruit  grower  to  pick  his  fruit  in  advance  of  rain,  the 
vegetable  grower  to  dig  his  vegetables  in  dry 
weather,  the  grower  of  alfalfa  to  bale  his  crop  in 
the  field,  the  maker  of  lime,  cement,  brick,  draintile, 


150       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

and  sewer-pipe  material  to  protect  it  from  rain 
during  tlie  process  of  manufacturing,  photographic 
firms  to  make  special  arrangements  for  large  or- 
ders; indeed,  one  might  continue  almost  intermi- 
nably to  cite  the  i^ractical  uses  of  the  work  of  the 
feather  Bureau. 

The  meteorological  institutions  of  the  world  have 
entered  into  a  sort  of  an  agreement  to  record  upon 
every  favorable  day  the  radiation  of  the  sun  and 
the  related  problem  of  the  polarization  of  sky  light. 
These  observations  are  exchanged  by  the  different 
institutions,  and,  once  they  have  been  taken  for  a 
long  term  of  years  and  are  compared  with  the 
weather  records  of  those  years,  it  is  hoped  that 
weather  forecasting  at  long  range  will  become  a  sci- 
entific reality.  In  this  work  the  Weather  Bureau 
uses  an  instrument  known  as  the  pyrheliometer. 
Used  in  connection  v/ith  an  electrical  resistance  ther- 
mometer it  is  so  sensitive  to  heat  that  it  can  register 
a  difference  in  temperature  a  million  times  more 
minute  than  can  be  recognized  by  the  average  per- 
son. The  pyrheliometer  is  made  of  two  blackened 
disks  fitted  on  a  rod,  like  pulleys  on  a  shaft.  These 
disks  are  immersed  in  water,  the  sun's  rays  are  con- 
centrated on  them,  and  the  amount  of  radiation  is 
determined  by  the  varying  temperature  of  the  water 
at  different  exposures. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  phases  of  the  work 
of  the  Weather  Bureau  is  that  part  which  is  being 
carried  on  at  the  Mount  Weather  Observatory. 
This  institution  is  making  all  sorts  of  investiga- 
tions into  the  whys  and  wherefores  of  the  weather, 


THE  WEATHER  BUREAU  151 

and  utilizes  all  kinds  of  ingenious  and  delicate  in- 
struments in  making  these  studies.  One  of  these 
instruments  consists  of  a  woman's  hair  and  a  pen 
which  writes  with  unfreezable  ink.  The  oil  is  ex- 
tracted from  the  hair,  and  in  this  way  it  becomes 
extremely  sensitive  to  all  variations  of  moisture 
in  the  air.  Great  care  is  taken  to  prevent  the  ac- 
cumulation of  foreign  matter  on  the  hair,  and  it  is 
washed  once  a  week  with  clean  water  applied  with 
a  camel 's-hair  brush.  The  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion of  the  hair  moves  the  tiny  pen  and  automatically 
makes  a  written  record  of  the  humidity  of  the  at- 
mosphere. One  of  the  houses  of  the  weather  station 
is  built  without  windows.  Another  had  to  be  con- 
structed without  iron  or  steel,  not  even  excepting 
nails.  Even  the  work  horses  about  the  place  can 
not  wear  iron  shoes  when  the  magnetic  laboratory 
observations  are  being  made.  The  rooms  in  this 
laboratory  must  be  maintained  at  a  temperature 
of  such  constancy  that  it  does  not  vary  more  than 
one-tenth  of  a  degree  the  whole  year  round. 

The  observers  at  Mount  Weather  fly  kites  and  re- 
lease captive  balloons  in  a  way  that  would  make  the 
heart  of  any  small  boy  turn  green  with  envy.  These 
kites  are  sent  up  into  the  air  every  favorable  day. 
Each  of  them  contains  a  full  set  of  instruments  for 
registering  the  heat,  the  direction  and  velocity  of  the 
wind,  and  other  weather  conditions  in  the  upper  air. 
The  average  height  to  which  the  kites  and  captive 
balloons  attain  is  about  2  miles,  although  some  of 
them  go  much  higher.  On  days  when  kites  and  cap- 
tive balloons  can  not  be  sent  up  other  balloons  are 


152      THE   AMERICAN   GOVERNMENT 

liberated,  either  singly  or  in  tandem.  They  carry 
a  set  of  automatic  instruments  which  record  the 
weather  conditions  in  the  atmosphere  through  which 
they  pass.  Some  of  them  travel  hundreds  of  miles 
before  they  are  found  and  returned.  Nearly  all  of 
these  are  eventually  sent  back  b}^  the  people  who 
discover  them. 

The  investigations  at  Mount  Weather  have  re- 
vealed conditions  differing  widely  from  those  sup- 
posed to  exist  before  these  researches  were  begun. 
The  accepted  rule  that  the  temperature  decreases  as 
altitude  increases  is  found  to  have  many  exceptions, 
a  great  layer  of  warm  air  frequently  floating  upon 
a  layer  of  cold  air,  while  the  thickness  and  horizon- 
tal extent  of  the  warm  air  layers  vary  greatly. 
Again,  temperature  inversions  have  been  recorded 
by  instrnments  at  the  time  the  kite  or  balloon  was 
sent  up,  whereas  no  trace  of  these  phenomena  re- 
mains when  the  kite  is  brought  down  again  a  few 
hours  later.  Likewise  it  has  been  found  that  a  given 
mass  of  air  changes  with  its  onward  movement  past 
the  line  of  ascent,  and  the  wind  direction  varies  with 
different  levels.  Sometimes,  when  the  wind  at  the 
ground  is  from  the  south,  the  direction  a  half-mile 
up  may  be  from  the  southwest  and  a  mile  up  it  may 
be  blowing  directly  from  the  west. 

Cloud  movements  indicate  that  in  this  hemisphere 
the  wind  direction  changes  to  the  right  with  increas- 
ing altitude,  but  kite  and  balloon  observations  show 
that  it  may  at  times  change  toward  the  left.  Obser- 
vations seem  to  show  that  temperature  changes  at 
the  ground  and  at  altitudes  of  1  and  2  miles  occur 


THE  WEATHER  BUREAU  153 

simultaneously,  thus  contradicting  the  hitherto  ac- 
cepted theory  that  the  changes  high  up  precede  those 
at  the  surface.  Hot  waves  are  seldom  felt  more  than 
half  a  mile  above  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  they 
do  not  advance  abruptly  with  a  solid  front  like  a 
wall,  but  start  at  the  ground  and  pile  up  layer  upon 
layer. 

The  application  of  the  Mount  Weather  data  to 
practical  forecasting  has  proven  of  great  assist- 
ance. This  data  serves  to  reverse  some  theories 
formerly  held.  Sometimes  a  storm  passes  eastward 
without  being  followed  by  expected  clearing  weather, 
because  a  second  storm  was  developing  off  the  mid- 
dle or  South  Atlantic  coast.  This  new  development 
is  not  indicated  by  observations  at  the  surface,  but 
the  Mount  Weather  flights  show  north  winds  at  high 
altitudes  in  advance  of  such  a  formation.  Again, 
when  an  atmospheric  depression  is  approaching 
from  the  southwest,  and  the  kite  records  show  winds 
turning  to  the  right  as  they  go  up,  the  usual  warm- 
ing up  is  retarded  in  the  Atlantic  States  about  24 
hours.  Likewise,  the  turning  of  the  winds  to  the  left 
as  the  kite  ascends  into  the  upper  air  shows  the 
depth  of  the  cold,  northwest  winds,  from  which  infer- 
ences may  be  drawn  as  to  the  probable  fall  in  tem- 
perature at  the  surface  of  the  earth  within  the  ensu- 
ing 24  hours. 

The  instruments  used  by  the  Weather  Bureau  to 
make  a  continuous  record  of  weather  conditions  are 
extremely  ingenious  and  interesting.  One  of  these 
is  an  automatic  pen  which  records  on  paper  the  state 
of  the  weather  as  to  cloudiness  and  sunshine.    It 


154       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

consists  of  a  straight  glass  tube  with  a  bulb  at  each 
end.  These  bulbs  are  filled  with  dry  air,  the  cham- 
bers being  separated  by  a  small  quantity  of  mercury 
and  alcohol.  Platinum  wires  are  inserted  in  the 
middle  of  the  tube.  The  lower  bulb  is  blackened  with 
lampblack,  and  is  always  turned  toward  the  south. 
It  is  so  mounted  that  whenever  the  sun  shines  it  will 
start  the  recording  pen  to  writing  and  as  soon  as  the 
sun  ceases  to  shine  the  pen  ceases  writing.  A  chart 
is  placed  upon  a  revolving  roller  operated  by  clock- 
work, and  by  tliis  means  the  "Weather  Bureau  is  se- 
curing year  in  and  year  out  a  record  of  the  amount 
of  sunshine  at  the  point  of  observation. 

Another  instrument  records  the  velocity  and  di- 
rection of  the  wind,  while  others  make  a  record  of 
temperature  conditions,  barometric  pressure,  rain- 
fall, etc.  The  rain  gauge,  which  records  automati- 
cally the  amount  of  rain  falling,  consists  of  a  re- 
ceiver and  a  little  bucket  with  two  compartments 
in  it,  mounted  on  trunnions  in  such  a  way  that  one 
of  these  compartments  is  always  under  the  receiver. 
When  a  compartment  becomes  full  it  tips  over  and 
empties  its  contents  into  a  tank,  and  in  the  act  of 
doing  so  brings  the  other  compartments  into  posi- 
tion to  be  filled.  When  the  bucket  tips  it  closes  an 
electric  circuit,  and  the  automatic  recording  pen  at- 
tached writes  down  the  number  of  bucketfuls  thus 
discharged. 

To  the  United  States  belongs  much  credit  for 
the  development  of  the  science  of  meteorology. 
Joseph  Henry,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  who 
had  aided  in  the  perfection  of  the  telegraph,  by  the 


THE  WEATHER  BUREAU  155 

use  of  that  instrument  began  to  draw  weather  maps, 
and  as  early  as  1856  he  displayed  them  each  day  at 
the  Smithsonian.  In  1870  the  United  States  began 
to  issue  daily  weather  maps. 

Many  weather  superstitions  have  been  proved 
to  have  no  foundation  whatever  in  fact.  One  of 
these  was  the  theory  that  our  forefathers  were 
healthier  than  we  because  of  their  ''old-fashioned" 
winters  and  summers.  An  examination  of  system- 
atic temperature  and  rainfall  records  shows  that 
there  has  not  been  an  appreciable  change  in  a  cen- 
tury. Some  winters  are  colder  than  others,  and  some 
summers  hotter,  but  they  average  up  about  the  same 
as  in  the  ''good  old  days." 

The  maps  and  bulletins  of  the  Weather  Bureau 
are  utilized  in  many  ways  by  the  public.  Grain 
and  cotton  brokers  are  guided  largely  by  the  fore- 
casts in  their  operations.  Data  of  atmospheric  pres- 
sure are  used  in  tests  of  boilers,  radiators,  and  auto- 
mobiles, and  in  studies  of  the  amount  of  fuel  re- 
quired to  drive  engines  under  varying  atmospheric 
pressures.  Statistics  of  wind  force  and  direction 
assist  in  the  installation  of  water-supply  systems  to 
be  operated  by  windmills,  in  determining  the  origin 
of  fires  resulting  from  flying  sparks,  the  pressure  to 
which  large  buildings  will  be  subjected  under  stress 
of  heavy  storms,  and  the  surface  movement  of  lake 
waters  in  connection  with  the  disposal  of  city  sew- 
age. The  humidity  records  are  used  by  silk  and 
candy  manufacturers,  in  tuberculosis  investigations, 
and  in  studies  of  the  loss  of  electric  current  in  high 
yoltage  transmission.    River  data  are  utilized  by  fil- 


156       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

tration  plants  in  guiding  their  metliods  of  cliem- 
ically  purifying  tlie  water  used  for  drinking  pur- 
poses, as  the  conditions  of  the  raw  water  supply; 
as  regards  bacteria  content  and  turbidity  are  greatly 
affected  by  the  height  of  the  river  and  the  amount 
of  rainfall.  Maps  are  used  by  business  men  gen- 
erally, by  aero  clubs  in  studies  for  flights,  and  by^ 
school-teachers  in  class  instruction. 

The  miscellaneous  climatological  data  are  used 
in  medical  and  scientific  studies  of  the  relation  of 
weather  to  diseases  and  other  conditions  of  health, 
life,  or  human  pursuits;  by  railroad  companies  in 
the  adjustment  of  claims  and  demurrage  charges; 
by  homeseekers ;  by  invalids  in  search  of  health  re- 
sorts; by  irrigation  investigators;  by  contractors 
and  builders  in  settling  labor  accounts ;  by  gas  and 
electric  light  companies  in  showing  their  customers 
the  relation  of  their  monthly  bills  to  the  varying 
hours  of  daylight  at  different  seasons  of  the  year; 
as  adequate  testimony  in  court  proceedings ;  in  dry- 
farming  investigations;  in  studies  of  soil  culture, 
practical  agriculture,  and  the  life  and  migration  of 
insect  pests ;  in  plans  for  the  development  of  the  arid 
regions ;  in  preparation  of  historical  records ;  by 
bond  and  investment  companies  in  determining  the 
loan  values  of  farm  lands  in  newly  opened  countries. 


XII. 

THE  DEPAETMENT  OF  COMMEECE 
AND  LABOE. 

The  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  covers 
a  wide  range  of  governmental  activities.  The  scru- 
tiny of  corporations,  the  regulation  of  immigration 
and  naturalization,  the  gathering  of  census  statistics, 
the  regulation  of  standards  of  measure,  the  propa- 
gation and  distribution  of  fishes,  the  maintenance 
of  lighthouses,  the  supervision  of  navigable  waters, 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  work,  and  the  Steam- 
boat-Inspection Service  are  among  the  affairs  with 
which  the  department  deals.  Among  the  most  inter- 
esting phases  of  its  activities  are  the  census  and  the 
maintenance  of  standards  of  measure,  which  are 
treated  in  separate  chapters. 

The  Bureau  of  Immigration  and  Naturalization 
has  charge  of  the  work  of  receiving  aliens  into  the 
United  States  and  of  the  enforcement  of  the  laws 
by  which  they  may  become  American  citizens.  One 
person  out  of  every  three  in  the  United  States  is 
an  immigrant  or  the  child  of  an  immigrant.  Fre- 
quently more  than  5,000  immigrants  arrive  in  one 
day  at  the  port  of  New  York,  and  on  some  occasions 
the  average  is  5,000  a  day  for  a  full  month.     This 

157 


158       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

gives  the  inspectors  only  two  minutes  to  eacli  immi- 
grant, and  a  question  must  be  asked  and  answered 
nearly  every  second.  Only  one  immigrant  out  of  a 
thousand  is  excluded,  although  the  restrictions  are 
being  multiplied  each  year.  The  head  tax  of  $4  col- 
lected from  each  immigrant  more  than  supports  the 
Immigration  and  Naturalization  Service  of  the 
country. 

Immigrants  coming  to  the  United  States  should 
possess  enough  money  to  take  care  of  themselves 
for  a  sufficient  time  to  permit  them  to  secure  em- 
ployment. During  a  recent  year  the  incoming  tide 
of  humanity  exhibited  to  the  officials  of  the  Immi- 
gration Service  more  than  $28,000,000,  an  average  of 
more  than  $27  per  person.  Fully  86  per  cent  of 
these  had  less  than  $50  when  they  came  in.  The  bulk 
of  the  immigration  into  the  United  States  to-day 
comes  from  southern  Europe. 

It  has  been  proposed  in  Congress  that  all  male 
aliens  between  the  ages  of  16  and  50  shall  be  re- 
quired to  stand  a  physical  test  equal  to  that  under- 
gone by  recruits  for  the  Army  and  Navy,  this  test, 
of  course,  to  be  applied  to  manual  laborers  only. 
Approximately  four  out  of  five  of  the  immigrants 
who  come  into  the  United  States  come  through  the 
port  of  New  York.  Of  the  1,041,570  immigrants 
arriving  in  1910,  786,004  came  through  that  port. 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  which  the  immigra- 
tion authorities  have  to  face  is  that  of  distributing 
this  flood  of  humanity  over  the  entire  country  rather 
than  allowing  it  to  concentrate  around  the  port  of 
entry.    There  is  a  provision  in  the  immigration  law 


COMMERCE  AND  LABOR  159 

wMcli  provides  that  contract  laborers  shall  not  be 
brought  into  the  United  States.  A  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  ease  with  which  conscienceless  persons  or 
corporations  can  violate  the  spirit  of  this  law  with- 
out putting  themselves  within  reach  of  its  letter  is 
the  case  of  a  large  concern  which  arranged  with  a 
philanthropic  (?)  society  to  keep  it  supplied  with 
common  manual  laborers,  offering  them  fair  wages. 
The  wages  would  usually  be  paid  for  the  first  week, 
and  then  the  aliens  were  placed  on  "piece-work,"  at 
a  wage,  and  under  conditions,  barely  affording  an 
existence.  This  would  result  in  their  leaving  the 
concern  as  soon  as,  by  starving  economy  or  other- 
wise, they  could  raise  a  sufficient  sum  to  take  them  to 
some  other  place.  Then  their  places  would  be  filled 
with  other  unskilled  and  ignorant  men  piloted  by  the 
society.  Thus  the  concern  maintained  a  constant 
supply  of  cheap  foreign  labor,  the  supposedly  phil- 
anthropic organization  earned  a  rich  financial  re- 
ward, and  the  aliens  were  outrageously  exploited. 

The  heavy  immigration  from  southern  Europe 
is  accredited  mainly  to  the  promotion  methods  of 
steamship  agencies  and  professional  money  lenders. 
Thoy  make  large  profits  out  of  the  immigrant  busi- 
ness, and  even  if  they  have  to  carry  some  of  the 
immigrants  back,  it  still  leaves  enough  profit  to  make 
the  business  very  much  worth  while. 

The  hardest  problem  which  the  Immigration  Serv- 
ice has  to  solve  is  that  of  enforcing  the  Chinese 
immigration  laws.  Sometimes  the  Chinese  slip  into 
the  United  States  from  Canada  or  Mexico  in  sealed 
freight  cars,  or  even  in  the  refrigerators  of  dining 


160       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

cars.  At  other  times  they  come  hidden  in  coal- 
bunkers,  chain-lockers,  forepeaks,  and  other  secluded 
parts  of  ocean-going  vessels.  It  is  stated  that  many 
of  the  Chinese  in  the  United  States  to-day  have 
reached  here  in  violation  of  the  Chinese  immigration 
law. 

A  typical  case  of  evasion  of  the  law  was  that  of 
a  Chinaman  who  recently  arrived  at  San  Francisco 
accompanied  by  an  alleged  son.  So  well  were  they 
coached  that  on  examining  them  the  officers  became 
satisfied  that  their  claims  were  bona  fide  and  in- 
structions were  given  for  their  landing.  If  the 
Chinaman  had  been  satisfied  to  perpetrate  only  two 
frauds  and  lay  the  basis  for  later  similar  operations, 
success  would  have  attended  him.  But  he  over- 
reached himself.  As  he  started  ashore  one  of  the 
watchmen  noticed  something  about  him  that  excited 
the  suspicion  that  he  was  carrying  coaching  letters, 
and  a  search  of  his  person  revealed  the  fact  that  he 
had  consented  to  be  the  message  bearer  for  a  num- 
ber of  the  detained  Chinese,  who,  their  cases  being 
fraudulent,  wished  to  get  letters  ashore  to  the  smug- 
glers interested  in  them,  showing  how  they  had  testi- 
fied in  order  that  corroborating  witnesses  could  be 
produced.  A  reexamination  of  this  Chinaman 
showed  that  he  and  his  son  were  not  even  members 
of  the  same  family,  and  that  their  cases  were  manu- 
factured out  of  whole  cloth. 

When  an  immigrant  lands  in  the  United  States, 
if  he  be  a  steerage  passenger,  he  must  undergo  a 
minute  examination.  Physicians,  expert  on  diseases 
prohibited  from  entry,  are  stationed  a  distance  of 


COMMERCE  AND  LABOR  161 

25  feet  apart,  and  the  immigrants  are  marclied  past 
in  single  file.  As  they  walk  across  the  25-foot  space, 
each  one  25  feet  behind  his  predecessor,  he  is  eyed 
minutely  from  head  to  foot  by  the  physician,  and  if 
there  is  any  reason  whatever  for  suspecting  the  pres- 
ence of  any  disease  prohibited  by  the  immigration 
laws,  the  suspected  alien  is  sent  back  for  further  ob- 
servation and  investigation.  An  alien  must  reside 
in  the  United  States  for  a  period  of  five  years  before 
he  is  entitled  to  become  a  full-fledged  citizen. 

A  branch  of  the  Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor  which  has  figured  prominently  in  the  pub- 
lic eye  is  the  Bureau  of  Corporations.  It  is  this 
bureau  that  investigated  the  Beef  Trust  and  as- 
serted that  the  packers'  profits  on  dressed  beef 
amounted  to  about  $1  per  steer.  It  has  also  in- 
vestigated the  Standard  Oil  Co.,  the  Cotton  Ex- 
changes, the  tobacco  industry,  and  the  lumber  in- 
dustry. It  declares  that  its  Standard  Oil  investi- 
gations caused  the  railroads  concerned  in  carrying 
oil  to  cancel  every  rate  declared  illegal  by  the  inves- 
tigators and  to  remove  most  of  the  other  causes  of 
complaint  as  to  inequitable  traffic  regulations.  It 
is  asserted  that  when  the  exposure  of  the  American 
Tobacco  Company's  methods  was  made  it  promptly 
abandoned  the  use  of  secret  subsidiary  concerns 
which  had  posed  as  independent,  but  which  in  reality 
were  trust  concerns  engaged  in  breaking  down  com- 
petition. Still  later  this  bureau  made  a  report  on 
the  billion-dollar  Steel  Trust. 

The  Bureau  of  Labor  devotes  its  activities  to  the 
work  of  gathering  information  about  the  condition 


162       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

of  tlie  laboring  classes  of  the  United  States,  and  of 
all  matters  whicli  affect  them.  Some  of  its  recent 
publications  include  bulletins  on  the  increase  in  the 
cost  of  food  and  other  products,  civil-service  re- 
tirement in  Great  Britain  and  New  Zealand,  rail- 
road-pension systems  in  the  United  States,  strike 
conditions  at  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Works,  a  compila- 
tion of  laws  relating  to  compensation  for  industrial 
accidents  in  foreign  countries,  condition  of  woman 
and  child  wage-earners  in  the  United  States,  and 
phosphorus  poisoning  in  the  match  industry.  This 
bureau  is  simply  a  gatherer  of  information  and  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  enforcement  of  laws  relating 
to  labor  conditions.  However,  it  does  adjudicate 
claims  for  compensation  growing  out  of  injuries  re- 
ceived by  Government  employees. 

The  Bureau  of  Manufactures  is  engaged  in  mak- 
ing available  for  the  manufacturing  establishments 
of  the  country  the  information  gathered  with  refer- 
ence to  trade  opportunities  in  foreign  lands  by  the 
Consular  Service  of  the  State  Department.  In  four 
years  there  were  published  over  5,000  separate 
items,  each  representing  an  opportunity  for  the  sale 
of  a  certain  machine  or  commodity  by  an  American 
manufacturer.  Business  men  directly  interested  are 
furnished  letters  in  business  detail  to  create  new  or 
to  extend  old  lines  of  trade.  The  bureau  is  engaged 
in  an  effort  to  educate  the  American  exporter  in  the 
art  of  properly  packing  goods.  In  addition  to  these 
things  it  has  prepared  an  International  Commercial 
Directory  containing  accurate  and  reliable  informa- 
tion as  to  buyers  in  foreign  countries.    This  Direc- 


COMMERCE  AND  LABOR  163 

tory  is  published  for  distribution  at  a  price  wMch 
will  relieve  the  Government  of  any  expense  in  con- 
nection with  its  publication. 

The  Bureau  of  Statistics  deals  largely  with  the 
gathering  and  publication  of  data  concerning  the 
commerce  of  the  United  States.  In  addition  to  this 
it  issues  one  of  the  most  useful  publications  pub- 
lished by  the  Federal  Government.  This  is  known 
as  the  Statistical  Abstract,  which  contains  annual 
statistics  about  every  line  of  activity  in  which  the 
Government  is  interested.  If  one  wishes  to  know 
how  many  telegrams  are  sent  in  the  United  States 
in  a  year,  the  Statistical  Abstract  brings  that  infor- 
mation down  to  date.  If  he  desires  to  ascertain  how 
much  wine  and  liquor  are  consumed  during  each  fis- 
cal year,  the  Statistical  Abstract  answers  the  ques- 
tion. If  he  desires  to  ascertain  how  many  tons  of 
freight  were  carried  in  the  United  States,  he  con- 
sults the  Statistical  Abstract.  It  tells  him  how  many 
boys  and  girls  go  to  school  in  the  United  States,  how 
faithful  they  are  in  their  attendance,  and  what  it 
costs  to  educate  them.  It  informs  him  how  many 
farms  there  are  in  the  United  States  and  how  much 
the  average  farm  is  worth.  It  tells  him  how  many 
women  there  are  who  are  breadwinners,  how  much 
taxes  the  average  man  pays,  how  many  fires  there 
are  in  each  State  in  the  Union  in  a  year,  and  prac- 
tically everything  else  anyone  wishes  to  know  of 
a  statistical  ijature  concerning  the  Government  and 
its  activities. 

The  Bureau  of  Fisheries  is  one  of  the  busiest  in 
the  department.     It  distributes  over  3,000,000,000 


164      THE   AMERICAN   GOVERNMENT 

eggs  and  fish  every  year.  Of  these  over  2,500,- 
000,000  are  tiny  little  fish  known  as  fry.  Of  the 
fish  and  eggs  distributed,  the  flatfish  ranks  first 
with  nearly  a  billion,  the  pike  perch  second  with 
half  a  billion,  the  white  perch  third,  and  the  yellow 
perch  fourth,  each  with  over  300,000,000.  The  shad 
and  the  cod  are  distributed  to  the  extent  of  a  quar- 
ter of  a  billion  each.  The  importance  of  fish  as  a 
food  product  is  not  appreciated  by  the  average 
American  citizen.  The  waters  of  the  United  States 
annually  contribute  more  than  $60,000,000  worth  of 
food  products  to  the  American  people. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  phases  of  the  work 
of  the  bureau  is  its  efforts  to  acclimatize  fish  from 
the  Pacific  in  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic.  For  nearly 
40  years  it  has  tried  to  establish  the  chinook  salmon 
in  Atlantic  coast  waters,  but  it  is  only  recently  that 
success  has  marked  its  efforts.  Specimens  of  this 
fish  have  lately  been  found  in  Lake  Sunapee,  N.  H., 
weighing  from  3  to  5  pounds.  Encouraged  by  this 
outcome,  the  bureau  has  recently  planted  40,000  fin- 
gerling  chinook  salmon  in  Lake  Champlain.  Around 
the  salmon  there  is  a  cloud  of  impenetrable  mystery. 
It  is  hatched  in  fresh  water,  goes  out  to  sea,  and  re- 
turns to  its  birthplace  to  die.  Beyond  this,  little  is 
known  of  its  habits.  How  far  it  goes  out  to  sea, 
what  it  lives  upon,  and  how  it  finds  its  way  back  to 
its  birthplace  are  questions  that  no  man  can  answer. 
Great  schools  of  them  have  been  sighted  in  the  ocean 
hundreds  of  miles  from  land,  but  when  seen  they 
were  always  headed  for  the  shore  and  fresh  water. 
They  travel  in  such  numbers  that  often  the  smaller 


COMMERCE  AND  LABOR  165 

streams  are  literally  choked  with  them.  They  fol- 
low closely  along  the  shore  in  search  of  suitable 
spawning  grounds.  In  an  effort  to  establish  the  age 
of  the  salmon  little  tin  tags  have  been  fastened  to 
the  tails  of  minnows  turned  loose,  in  the  hope  that 
they  would  show  up  later.  This  experiment  has  been 
tried  in  the  case  of  cod,  off  the  coast  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  some  of  the  tagged  fish  have  been  caught 
several  hundred  miles  away  from  the  place  where 
they  were  liberated. 

The  propagation  of  the  oyster  and  the  study  of 
its  diseases  and  its  other  natural  enemies  engage  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  work  of  the  Bureau 
of  Fisheries.  The  oyster  lends  itself  admirably  to 
efforts  for  its  conservation.  As  an  egg  producer 
it  beats  the  American  hen  as  badly  as  an  express 
train  beats  the  slowest  snail  that  crawls.  Some  of 
the  best  layers  produce  as  many  as  50,000,000  eggs 
a  season,  while  an  average  of  16,000,000  eggs  is 
maintained.  Under  natural  conditions  only  1  egg  in 
10,000,000  is  likely  to  develop  into  a  mature  oyster. 
Under  methods  of  artificial  propagation  this  ratio 
may  be  lowered  perhaps  a  hundredfold.  There  are 
many  enemies  which  j^rey  upon  the  oyster.  The 
drumfish  delights  to  find  a  planted  bed,  for  there 
oysters  are  smoother  and  their  shells  are  more 
easily  crushed.  The  starfish  travels  in  great  schools 
at  a  speed  of  about  500  feet  a  day.  It  begins  its 
work  of  destruction  when  it  is  no  larger  than  a  pin- 
head,  and  keeps  it  up  all  through  life.  It  attaches 
itself  to  the  oyster,  and  by  persistence  finally  suc- 
ceeds in  worrying  it  out  and  forcing  its  stomach 


166       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

into  the  oyster 's  shell,  through  which  it  absorbs  the 
life  juices  of  the  oyster.  The  Bureau  of  Fisheries 
has  devised  a  dredge  consisting  of  about  a  dozen 
mops  arranged  like  the  teeth  of  an  old-fashioned 
harrow.  This  is  dragged  across  the  oyster  bed  and 
when  it  is  filled  with  starfish  they  are  brought  to 
the  surface  and  scalded  to  death. 

The  oyster  has  all  the  organs  common  to  animal 
life,  nearly  all  of  them  centered  in  its  gills.  In 
these  gills  are  the  pumps  which  maintain  a  proper 
circulation  of  the  water  supply,  the  food  collec- 
tors, which  strain  the  oyster's  bread  and  meat  from 
the  water,  the  hands  that  carry  the  food  to  the 
mouth,  and  the  nursing  chamber  where  the  eggs  are 
brought  to  that  maturity  which  enables  the  baby 
oysters  to  go  out  into  the  ocean  and  seek  homes  for 
themselves.  After  a  very  short  period  of  free  exist- 
ence, spent  mainly  in  looking  around  for  a  desirable 
place  to  build  a  permanent  residence,  it  settles  down 
and  lives  there  the  rest  of  its  natural  life.  The  food 
of  the  oyster  is  tiny  diatoms,  little  specks  of  plant 
life  which  live  in  the  water.  The  Bureau  of  Fish- 
eries has  established  a  system  of  feeding  the  oyster 
by  providing  a  liberal  supply  of  diatoms.  It  in- 
closed a  shallow  lagoon  at  the  south  end  of  Chesa- 
peake Bay  and  dumped  several  tons  of  ordinary 
commercial  fertilizer  into  the  marshes  along  the 
shore  of  the  lagoon.  As  this  was  washed  into  the 
water  it  produced  a  tremendous  crop  of  diatoms, 
and  the  oysters  grew  fat  upon  them.  In  order  to 
widely  distribute  the  diatoms  a  screw  propeller 
was   attached   to   a   windmill   and   in   this   way   a 


COMMERCE  AND  LABOR  167 

continuous  current  through  the  lagoon  was  estab 
lished. 

The  bureau  is  also  engaged  in  studying  the  pearl 
mussel  supply  of  the  rivers  of  the  United  States 
and  in  trying  to  discover  a  method  for  their  arti- 
ficial propagation.  Sponge  culture  by  artificial 
methods,  the  study  of  fish  diseases  such  as  thyroid 
tumor  or  cancer,  the  control  of  the  seal  fisheries  of 
Alaska,  and  the  investigation  of  the  diamond-backed 
terrapin,  the  stone  crab,  the  quahog  or  hard  clam, 
and  seaweed,  are  among  the  other  activities  of  the 
bureau. 

The  Lighthouse  Board  has  charge  of  the  mainte- 
nance and  construction  of  lighthouses  and  other  aids 
to  navigation  along  the  coasts  and  in  the  rivers  of 
the  United  States.  It  maintains  all  sorts  of  aids  to 
navigation,  from  the  painted  buoy  up  to  the  big 
lightship  tenders,  and  the  lighthouse  keepers  have 
some  of  the  most  thrilling  experiences  of  any  people 
in  the  Government  service.  Some  of  the  buoys  mail 
tained  are  provided  with  whistling  apparatus,  others 
with  fixed  lights,  and  others  with  alternating  lights. 
The  use  of  acetylene  gas  in  the  light  buoys  is  becom- 
ing more  extensive,  and  a  most  unique  method  of 
automatically  lighting  them  is  resorted  to.  A  min- 
eral substance  known  as  selenium  possesses  the 
property  of  being  a  nonconductor  of  electricity 
when  the  light  does  not  shine  upon  it^  and  a  con- 
ductor when  it  does.  By  the  use  of  this  the  buoy  is 
automatically  lighted  as  soon  as  the  sun  goes  down, 
and  the  light  is  extinguished  as  soon  as  sunlight  ap- 
pears the  next  morning. 


168       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

The  Bureau  of  Navigation  has  charge  of  the  en- 
forcement of  the  law  requiring  all  ocean-passenger 
steamers  carrying  50  passengers  or  more  on  routes 
of  200  miles  or  more  to  be  equipped  with  efficient 
wireless  apparatus  and  operators.  It  also  has 
charge  of  the  enforcement  of  the  law  for  the  regula- 
tion of  motor  boats.  It  maintains  shipping  commis- 
sioners at  17  seaports. 

The  Steamboat-Inspection  Service  inspects  all  of 
the  steamboats  of  the  United  States  and  those  clear- 
ing from  American  ports.  Owing  to  the  efficiency 
of  this  work  less  than  400  lives  were  lost  out  of  the 
300,000,000  passengers  carried  in  one  year.  This 
bureau  has  officers  stationed  wherever  excursion 
steamers  handle  passengers  to  insure  that  no 
steamer  is  overloaded.  The  bureau  tests  the  boil- 
ers, the  hulls,  and  all  life-saving  apparatus  aboard 
every  steamship  carrying  American  passengers,  and 
no  vesBel  can  engage  in  such  business  unless  it 
receives  a  clean  bill  of  health  from  the  Steamboat- 
inspection  Service. 

Another  interesting  activity  of  the  Department 
of  Commerce  and  Labor  is  the  work  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey.  This  bureau  is  charged  with 
the  making  of  surveys  of  the  coast  of  the  United 
States  and  coasts  under  the  jurisdiction  of  this  coun- 
try. This  includes  the  measuring  of  bases,  triangu- 
lation,  topography,  and  other  matters  along  these 
coasts.  It  also  makes  surveys  of  rivers  to  the  head 
of  ship  navigation,  and  studies  the  depth,  tempera- 
ture, and  current  movements  in  the  waters  along 
the   coast,   and   throughout   the   Gulf   and   Japan 


COMMERCE   AND   LABOR  169 

streams.  It  is  engaged  in  a  study  of  the  magnetic 
properties  of  the  earth,  and  the  variations  of  terres- 
trial magnetism.  It  also  determines  the  precise  levels 
in  the  United  States  and  geographic  positions  by 
astronomic  observations  and  triangulation  in  order 
to  furnish  the  reference  points  from  which  all  State 
surveys  begin.  The  granite  post  with  its  metal 
bench  mark,  showing  the  exact  geographical  position 
and  height  above  the  sea,  is  a  familiar  sight  in  many 
parts  of  the  country. 


XIII. 

THE  CENSUS  BUREAU. 

The  Census  Bureau  is  perhaps  the  world's  great- 
est gatherer  of  statistical  information.  Once  every 
10  years  it  puts  an  army  of  75,000  people  into  the 
field  for  the  purpose  of  gathering  the  data  which  will 
afford  a  great  national  snapshot  of  the  United 
States  as  it  is,  and  furnish  a  basis  for  ascertaining 
what  progress  the  country  has  made  during  the 
decade.  After  these  decennial  inquiries  are  made, 
the  bureau  disbands  its  army  of  75,000  enumerators. 
It  takes  a  force  of  3,000  two  years  to  digest  the 
statistical  information  gathered.  The  permanent 
bureau  maintains  a  force  of  800  for  the  gathering 
and  publishing  of  statistical  data  between  census 
periods. 

When  the  Census  Bureau  begins  the  work  of  tak- 
ing the  decennial  census,  the  first  question  which 
confronts  it  is  that  of  making  out  the  schedules  of 
questions  which  are  to  be  asked  by  the  census  enu- 
merators. It  is  by  no  means  a  simple  matter  of 
writing  down  every  question  that  happens  to  suggest 
itself  to  the  schedule  maker.  Upon  the  number  and 
the  character  of  the  questions  contained  in  a  sched- 
ule depend  the  accuracy  and  value  of  the  returns. 

171 


172       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

There  are  two  principles  which  must  govern  those 
who  frame  a  census  schedule.  Enough  questions 
must  be  asked  to  get  the  information  desired,  and 
yet  the  fewer  and  simpler  these  questions  are,  the 
greater  will  be  the  accuracy  of  the  data  they  bring 
out.  So  the  schedule  maker  tries  to  find  a  happy 
medium  between  the  large  number  of  questions 
which  would  call  forth  much  information  and  the 
small  number  of  simple  questions  which  would  se- 
cure the  greatest  accuracy.  Many  different  sched- 
ules of  questions  are  submitted  to  different  classes 
of  people.  The  population  schedule,  of  course,  goes 
to  everj^body.  This  schedule  for  the  Thirteenth  Cen- 
sus contained  33  questions.  The  next  most  impor- 
tant schedule  has  to  do  with  the  farms.  It  contains 
some  600  questions.  The  schedule  of  the  manufac- 
turing industries  contains  several  hundred  questions. 
The  population  schedule  is  always  the  most  impor- 
tant. The  census  is  primarily  a  matter  of  counting 
noses  to  determine  the  population  of  the  country 
for  purposes  of  apportioning  representation  in  Con- 
gress. 

All  the  other  inquiries  have  come  about  as  an  in- 
cidental matter,  a  sort  of  by-product,  as  it  were. 
Upon  the  count  of  population  may  depend  the  po- 
litical complexion  of  the  Nation.  The  population 
schedule  for  the  Thirteenth  Census  contained  a  num- 
ber of  new  interrogatories.  One  of  these  was  for 
the  purpose  of  finding  out  what  proportion  of  the 
people  are  employees.  Another  new  question  re- 
lated to  whether  the  person  was  a  Union  or  Con- 
federate soldier  during  the  Civil  War.    This  ques- 


THE  CENSUS  BUREAU  173 

tion  was  asked  with  reference  to  service  in  the  Union 
Army  at  the  Eleventh  Census,  the  names  of  sur- 
vivors and  their  service  being  gathered.  No  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  publication  of  this  data, 
which  would  have  filled  eight  large  quarto  volumes 
of  a  thousand  pages  each.  The  returns  were  de- 
posited in  the  Pension  Bureau  and  never  have  been 
printed. 

It  required  more  than  70,000  people  to  gather  the 
population  and  agricultural  statistics  of  the  coun- 
try in  1910.  In  the  taking  of  the  census  a  careful 
tab  is  kept  on  every  enumerator 's  work  every  day  he 
is  in  the  field.  He  is  supplied  with  two  cards  for 
each  day's  work.  At  night  he  fills  them  out,  for- 
warding one  to  the  supervisor  of  his  district  and  the 
other  to  the  Census  Bureau  in  Washington.  He 
must  give  a  list  of  the  places  he  has  visited,  the  num- 
ber of  people  he  has  enumerated,  and,  in  short,  a 
general  history  of  the  day's  work.  The  supervisor 
and  the  central  office  both  check  his  cards,  and  if 
there  is  the  slightest  reason  to  suspect  that  he  has 
not  been  doing  his  work  properly  he  will  be  asked 
to  explain.  His  final  report  must  balance  exactly 
with  the  sum  of  his  daily  reports. 

The  cost  of  the  Thirteenth  Census  was  approxi- 
mately $14,000,000,  of  which  about  $7,000,000  went 
to  pay  for  the  enumeration  in  the  field.  The  census 
law  requires  that  every  person  shall  make  true  and 
faithful  answer  to  the  enumerator  who  calls  upon 
him,  and  provides  a  fine  and  imprisonment  for  will- 
ful failure  to  give  such  answers.  At  the  same  time 
it  is  equally  careful  to  insure  the  people  that  their 


174       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

confidence  shall  be  protected  if  they  answer  well  and 
truly.  The  enumerator  is  required  to  hold  in  sacred 
confidence  everything  he  learns  in  the  discharge  of 
his  duties,  and  a  jail  sentence  stares  him  in  the  face 
if  he  divulges  any  of  the  information  he  obtains. 
No  matter  if  he  unearths  the  biggest  tax  dodger  in 
the  country,  or  the  most  notorious  criminal  in  the 
land,  his  mouth  must  be  forever  closed.  That  he 
does  unearth  a  vast  amount  of  tax  dodging  is  dis- 
closed by  the  fact  that  during  a  recent  year  the  peo- 
ple of  the  country  informed  the  tax  assessor  that 
they  were  worth  $35,000,000,000.  When  the  enumer- 
ator came  around,  with  expanding  chest  and  swelling 
pride  they  informed  him  that  they  were  worth  more 
than  $100,000,000,000. 

One  of  the  things  which  the  Census  Bureau  has 
to  guard  against  is  frequent  attempts  at  padding 
the  lists.  In  one  census  a  negro  enumerator  in 
Mississippi  made  returns  for  all  the  farms  in  his 
district,  and  then  duplicated  these  returns  for  every 
member  of  the  family  on  each  farm.  This  padding 
was  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  his  own  pay.  In 
another  case  a  Maryland  enumerator  visited  the 
cemeteries  in  his  district  and  returned  the  names 
upon  the  tombstones.  Sometimes  ambitious  cities 
engage  in  campaigns  of  census  padding.  In  a  recent 
census  two  rival  cities  undertook  to  pad  their  popu- 
lation returns.  Each  was  watching  the  other.  The 
one  went  at  it  in  a  crude  sort  of  way,  and  was  soon 
detected.  The  other  handled  the  situation  with  a 
finer  hand  and  might  have  succeeded  in  its  efforts 
but  for  the  watchfulness  of  the  rival  city. 


THE  CENSUS  BUEEAU  175 

Bitter  disappointments  often  follow  the  announce- 
ments of  census  returns.  Ambitious  cities  hope  to 
make  a  better  showing  than  their  rivals.  For  in- 
stance, as  Los  Angeles  and  Seattle  were  both  am- 
bitious to  be  written  down  as  the  second  city  of  the 
Pacific  coast  by  the  Thirteenth  Census,  a  great  cam- 
paign of  city  booming  was  carried  forward  by  each 
of  them.    Los  Angeles  won  out. 

But  for  the  invention  of  machines  capable  of  ar- 
ranging and  adding  figures  more  accurately  than  can 
be  done  by  the  human  hand  and  the  human  brain, 
and  much  more  rapidly,  the  taking  of  a  Federal 
census  under  present  conditions  would  be  utterly  im- 
practicable.   It  would  require  so  long  to  tabulate, 
digest,  and  publish  the  returns  that  it  would  be  time 
for  another  census  to  be  taken  before  the  one  in  hand 
could  be  completed.    Electricity  has  solved  the  prob- 
lems of  digesting  the  returns  which  come  from  the 
enumerators  in  the  field.     Prior  to  the  Eleventh 
Census  all  returns  were  tabulated  by  hand;  and  a 
long,  tedious  task  it  was.     In  1890  the  electrical 
punching  and  tabulating  machine  came  into  use,  hav- 
ing been  invented  by  a  former  employee  of  the  cen- 
sus.    Speaking  of  this  machine  Director  Merriam 
of  the  Twelfth  Census  declared  that  it  "has  proved 
a  boon  to  the  Census  Office.    It  needs  only  be  said 
that  if,  at  the  Twelfth  Census,  the  tallies  of  age  and 
sex,  nativity  and  occupation  had  been  made  by  hand, 
it  would  have  required  the  time  of  a  hundred  clerks 
nearly  twelve  years.'*    He  also  estimated  that  the 
electrical  machinery  does  the  work  in  a  tenth  of  the 
time,  at  a  third  of  the  cost,  and  with  a  greater  de- 


176       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

gree  of  accuracy  than  could  be  accomplished  by 
hand,  and  that  it  saved  the  Government  $5,000,000 
in  the  work  of  the  Twelfth  Census. 

This  machinery  is  remarkable  for  its  ingenuity. 
SjTnbols  are  prepared  which  represent  the  various 
items  of  data  as  extracted  from  the  schedule.  Edi- , 
tors  take  the  schedules  and  insert  the  symbols  over 
the  item  in  the  various  columns  and  form  divisions. 
A  separate  card  is  devoted  to  each  person  in  the 
United  States,  and  on  each  of  them  is  set  down  the 
facts  relating  to  the  sex,  age,  race,  birthplace,  etc., 
and  a  machine  is  used  to  punch  holes  through  the 
symbols  which  tell  the  story  of  each  individual. 
Each  machine  has  a  capacity  of  about  1,800  cards 
a  day,  and  there  are  300  machines  in  the  Census 
Office. 

The  90,000,000  cards  which  represent  the  90,000,- 
000  people  in  the  United  States  would  make  a  stack 
10  miles  high.  A  careful  check  is  kept  upon  the  ac- 
curacy of  the  operators  of  the  punching  machines, 
so  as  tc  make  sure  that  they  are  not  hitting  the 
wrong  keys.  While  it  is  not  possible  to  compare  all 
of  these  90,000,000  cards  with  the  schedules  from 
which  they  are  punched,  a  certain  number  of  cards 
are  selected  at  random  from  each  operator's  work 
and  compared  with  the  original.  If  the  operator  is 
inaccurate  she  must  mend  her  ways  or  turn  the  ma- 
chine over  to  some  one  else. 

After  the  cards  are  punched  they  are  fed  into 
what  is  known  as  the  tabulating  machine.  This 
machine  is  so  arranged  that,  as  the  card  passes 
through,  an  electrical  connection  is  established  by 


THE  CENSUS  BUREAU  177 

a  blunt  needle  passing  through  the  card,  wherever 
there  is  a  hole  punched,  into  a  cup  of  mercury,  and 
the  fact  of  this  connection  is  automatically  recorded. 
The  machine  automatically  prints  the  total  results 
for  each  unit  of  area,  such  as  districts,  townships, 
wards,  cities,  or  States.  This  machine  has  almost 
human  intelligence.  Whenever  a  card  fed  into  it  is 
properly  punched  it  gives  an  approving  ring  and 
passes  the  card  through.  If  the  card  does  not  have 
the  proper  number  of  holes  punched  in  it  the  tabu- 
lating machine  stops  and  refuses  to  budge  until  the 
offending  card  is  withdrawn. 

One  may  get  a  striking  lesson  of  the  costliness  of 
small  errors  from  a  statement  made  recently  by 
Director  Durand,  of  the  Census  Bureau.  In  the 
case  of  farm  statistics  the  enumerator  sometimes 
makes  the  mistake  of  adding  or  leaving  off  a  cipher 
in  reporting  the  number  of  bushels  of  grain  raised 
on  a  given  farm.  To  follow  up  all  these  errors  and 
check  off  the  obvious  ones,  after  the  method  of  the 
Twelfth  Census,  would  cost,  he  estimates,  several 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  By  the  use  of  the  type- 
writer-adding machine,  such  errors  in  a  column  of 
figures  were  so  patent  that  the  trained  eye  detected 
them  without  the  necessity  of  editing  by  individual 
schedules.  At  the  last  census  the  statistics  of  agri- 
culture were  tabulated  by  means  of  punched  cards 
of  which  some  200,000,000  were  used.  These  cards 
would  have  made  a  stack  over  25  miles  high.  The 
typewriter-adding  machines  have  served  to  expedite 
the  work  of  tabulating  the  returns  of  the  7,000,000 
farms  from  which  statistics  were  gathered. 


178       TliE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

The  work  of  publishing  the  returns  of  the  cen- 
sus is  a  very  large  one.  For  many  years  the  reports 
were  published  by  private  contract,  but  at  present 
the  Government  Printing  Office  does  the  work.  The 
reports  for  the  Thirteenth  Census  are  much  more 
compact  than  in  the  case  of  any  preceding  census. 
Heretofore  the  decennial  census  reports  have  taken 
up  almost  as  much  room  in  a  library  as  Dr.  Eliot's 
famous  section  of  lineal  literature.  Director  Durand 
has  scaled  down  the  size  of  his  reports  considerably. 
He  had  an  excellent  example  to  guide  him.  The 
Federal  Blue  Book,  or  register  of  Government  em- 
ployees, formerly  was  published  in  two  volumes, 
each  of  them  larger  than  an  old-fashioned  family 
Bible.  The  latest  one  issued  by  the  Census  Bureau, 
without  omitting  a  single  essential  fact,  has  been 
squeezed  down  to  two  volumes  whose  aggregate  size 
is  considerably  less  than  that  of  the  smaller  of  the 
two  former  volumes. 

In  addition  to  the  statistics  of  population,  agri- 
culture, and  manufactures,  the  decennial  census 
gathers  like  information  with  reference  to  mines  and 
quarries  in  the  United  States.  In  this  work  it  has 
an  agreement  with  the  Geological  Survey.  There  is 
also  provision  for  smaller  investigations  to  be  made 
in  decennial  years.  One  of  these  relates  to  the  enu- 
meration of  inmates  of  institutions  for  criminals, 
paupers,  feeble-minded,  and  juvenile  delinquents. 
Another  consists  of  the  enumeration  of  benevolent 
institutions,  and  the  third  is  a  special  inquiry  with 
reference  to  the  deaf  and  dumb  and  the  blind  of  the 
United  States.    Irrigation  statistics  are  also  gath- 


THE  CENSUS  BUREAU  179 

ered.  This  is  being  done  by  a  special  field  force  in 
cooperation  with  the  division  of  irrigation  investi- 
gations of  the  Department  of  Agriculture. 

When  the  Census  Bureau  finishes  the  big  decen- 
nial inquiry  it  undertakes  other  lines  of  work  dur- 
ing the  years  intervening  between  census  periods. 
Each  year  it  gathers  statistics  of  the  financial  and 
municipal  activities  of  cities  having  a  population  of 
more  than  30,000.  It  also  gathers  annual  statistics 
concerning  the  ginning,  consumption,  and  the  stock 
of  cotton.  In  its  annual  work  includes  the  gathering 
of  data  concerning  births  and  deaths  in  the  registra- 
tion States  and  information  concerning  forest  prod- 
ucts. Every  five  years  the  bureau  makes  an  investi- 
gation of  all  manufacturing  industries.  The  Thir- 
teenth Census  has  made  the  first  nation-wide  inves- 
tigation as  to  the  prevalence  of  race  suicide,  as  in- 
dicated by  the  number  of  children  born  and  the  num- 
ber living  in  comparison  with  the  number  of  women 
of  different  classes,  their  age,  and  the  duration  of 
married  life. 

The  history  of  census  taking  in  the  United  States 
is  an  interesting  one.  The  Federal  Government  has 
conducted  these  inquiries  13  times  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Government,  and  in  doing  so  has  spent 
some  $75,000,000.  Starting  out  in  1790  with  but  four 
questions,  all  of  them  upon  the  single  subject  of 
inquiry — population — the  work  expanded  in  a  hun- 
dred years  to  such  a  remarkable  extent  that  in  1890 
there  were  31  different  subjects  of  inquiry,  carrying 
over  13,000  questions. 

The  most  remarkable  expansion  in  the  work  took 


180      THE   AMERICAN    GOVERNMENT 

place  at  the  Tenth  Census,  in  1880.  At  the  preced- 
ing census  there  had  been  but  12  subjects  of  inquiry, 
embracing  only  156  questions.  In  1880  the  number 
of  subjects  had  increased  to  26,  and  the  number  of 
questions  to  1,310.  These  inquiries  were  so  top- 
heavy  that  in  1900  Congress  decided  to  reduce  the 
number  of  subjects  to  four — population,  agriculture, 
manufactures,  and  vital  statistics.  It  is  indeed  a 
far  cry  from  the  17  marshals  and  200  assistants, 
with  their  quill  pens  and  saddle  bags,  who  gathered 
and  prepared  the  returns  of  the  First  Census  in  1790 
to  the  70,000  census  takers  of  1910  with  their  elec- 
trical tabulating  machinery. 

The  First  Census  cost  $44,000,  and  it  is  calculated 
that  the  one  which  will  be  taken  in  1920  will  cost 
more  than  $20,000,000.  There  was  much  disappoint- 
ment over  the  showing  of  the  First  Census.  Many 
thought  it  made  the  population  too  small,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  supposed  to  be  for  purposes  of 
taxation.  Thomas  Jefferson  unhesitatingly  ex- 
pressed his  belief  that  it  was  erroneous,  and  as  Sec- 
retary of  State  notified  the  representatives  of  the 
United  States  abroad  that  the  returns  were  far  short 
of  the  truth.  He  was  careful  to  supply  many  omis- 
sions in  red  ink.  Subsequent  events  indicate  that  the 
First  Census  was,  as  a  matter  of  tact,  a  very  accu- 
rate one  and  that  the  trouble  layinthe  overestimates 
of  colonial  populations  which  had  been  made  pre- 
viously. One  of  the  most  interesting  publications 
ever  issued  by  the  Government  is  that  containing  a 
list  of  the  heads  of  families  as  disclosed  by  the  cen- 
sus of  1790.    This  work  was  undertaken  only  a  few 


THE  CENSUS  BUREAU  181 

years  ago,  and  is  a  publication  of  surpassing  inter- 
est to  the  genealogists  of  the  United  States. 

Once  the  Census  Bureau  completes  its  count  of 
the  population  of  the  country  it  announces  the  re- 
sults to  Congress.  That  body  takes  the  figures  and 
from  them  determines  the  number  of  Representa- 
tives who  shall  constitute  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives in  Congress  during  the  ensuing  decade.  It  has 
the  constitutional  right  either  to  increase  the  number 
of  Representatives,  or  to  increase  the  number  of 
people  to  be  represented  by  the  average  Member. 
The  aim  usually  is  to  strike  such  an  apportionment 
so  that  no  State  loses  a  Representative  by  the  pro- 
cedure. Under  the  apportionment  of  the  Thirteenth 
Census  the  House  consists  of  435  Members,  one  Mem- 
ber to  each  211,877  of  population.  The  Senate  usu- 
ally allows  the  House  to  determine  the  matters  in- 
volved and  then  agrees  to  the  House  apportionment 
measure. 

After  Congress  has  passed  the  apportionment  bill, 
providing  the  number  of  Representatives  from  each 
State,  it  devolves  upon  the  legislatures  of  the  States 
to  divide  them  into  districts  and  to  provide  for  the 
election  of  the  requisite  number  of  Representatives. 
Usually  party  politics  controls  this  work.  The  party 
in  power  in  a  legislature  nearly  always  tries  so  to 
lay  off  the  congressional  districts  that  in  the  election 
the  opposing  party  shall  be  at  a  great  disadvantage. 
It  tries  to  crowd  all  of  the  counties  with  big  major- 
ities to  the  opposite  party  into  a  few  districts,  leav- 
ing all  the  other  districts  in  a  position  to  return 
Representatives  of  their  own  political  persuasion. 


182       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Sometimes  it  so  lays  off  a  congressional  district 
as  to  make  it  resemble  a  shoe  string  more  than  an}'- 
thing  else.  Elbridge  Gerry  first  practiced  this  art 
as  a  political  leader,  and  it  has  been  known  as  ''ger- 
rymandering" ever  since.  Congress  itself  often 
plays  politics  when  a  reapportionment  measure 
comes  up  for  consideration.  If  a  political  wave  has 
swept  the  party  then  in  power  in  the  House  out  of 
power  in  the  legislatures,  it  holds  up  the  apportion- 
ment bill  in  the  hope  that  its  fortunes  may  again  be 
in  the  ascendant  in  the  legislatures  of  the  States 
where  the  gerrymander  is  the  deciding  factor  as  to 
which  party  shall  have  control  of  tne  State  delega- 
tion in  Congress. 


XIV. 

THE  BUREAU  OF  STANDARDS. 

At  the  National  Bureau  of  Standards  one  may 
have  ocular  demonstration  that  truth  is  stranger 
than  fiction.  In  one  room  of  this  remarkable  insti- 
tution is  a  giant  testing  machine,  powerful  enough 
to  pull  asunder  a  great  steel  shaft.  In  another  room 
the  visitor  may  behold  by  optical  means  the  bending 
of  tool-steel  shafting,  Sy^  inches  in  diameter,  beneath 
the  weight  of  a  visiting  card.  Across  the  hall  is  a 
weighing  machine  with  balance  so  sensitive  as  to 
register  the  decrease  in  weight  of  a  piece  of  metal 
when  moved  2  inches  farther  from  the  earth.  In 
another  room  are  to  be  found  length  measures  so 
delicate  that  their  scale  can  be  read  only  by  the  aid 
of  a  microscope  magnifying  50  diameters,  and  which, 
when  being  used,  are  packed  in  ice  so  that  the  vari- 
ations of  heat  may  not  affect  their  accuracy.  In 
still  another  room  the  visitor  may  study  the  ultra- 
violet rays  of  light,  such  as  the  unaided  human  eye 
has  never  seen.  At  another  place  he  may  see  men 
testing  thermometers  which  register  a  temperature 
below  the  freezing  point  of  pure  hydrogen;  and 
others  which  will  accurately  measure  heat  up  to  ap- 

183 


184       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

proximately  7,000°,  a  beat  so  intense  that  no  earthly 
substance  can  survive  it. 

The  layman  can  hardly  appreciate  how  close 
home  to  him  comes  the  work  of  the  Bureau  of  Stand- 
ards. His  groceries  are  bought  by  standard  meas- 
ures, the  imported  sugar  in  his  coffee  at  breakfast 
'  has  been  tested  by  the  bureau  for  the  Customs  Serv- 
ice. The  electric  light  by  which  he  reads  at  night 
conforms  to  the  standards  of  this  bureau.  The 
clinical  thermometer  by  which  the  doctor  ascertains 
his  temperature  when  he  is  sick,  and  the  apothecary 
scales  by  which  his  medicines  have  been  measured, 
owe  their  accuracy  to  the  work  of  this  bureau. 

The  Bureau  of  Standards  is  the  home  of  precision, 
but  not  of  undue  precision,  for  the  bureau  aims  to 
assign  to  each  case  the  order  of  accuracy  it  deserves. 
A  clinical  thermometer,  correct  to  a  tenth  of  a  de- 
gree, is  tested  in  a  few  minutes.  If,  however,  a 
standard  of  length,  yard  or  meter,  is  for  some  great 
inanufacturing  plant  where  measuring  instruments 
are  made,  weeks  are  spent  in  testing  a  single  stand- 
ard, while  fundamental  national  standards  take 
years  to  establish.  The  modern  m'^tric  standards 
of  length  and  mass  took  15  years  to  prepare,  verify, 
and  distribute  to  the  Governments  of  the  world. 

The  unique  facilities  for  scientific  work  at  the 
bureau  attract  visitors  from  every  land.  A  liquid- 
air  plant  affords  freezing  temperatures  almost  to 
absolute  zero;  electric  furnaces  give  heat  enough 
to  melt  rock;  machines  are  at  hand  to  freeze  the 
moisture  from  the  air  and  provide  a  new  dry  climate 
wherever  required ;  through  large  tunnels  run  a  mul- 


THE  BUREAU  OF  STANDARDS        185 

titude  of  pipes  and  wires,  carrying  not  merely  hot, 
cold,  and  iced  water,  but  steam,  vacuum,  and  com- 
pressed air  to  the  various  laboratories.  Every  room 
needing  special  time  service  can  be  wired  to  beat 
second  intervals  from  that  marvel  of  precision — the 
Riefler  clock,  which  runs  correct  to  within  a  half 
second  a  month.  There  are  ice-making  machines, 
gas-making  machines,  ventilating  systems,  and  re- 
markable switchboards  where  all  kinds  and  strengths 
of  electric  current  may  be  sent  to  any  room  as  easily 
as  a  telephone  connection  is  made.  In  the  glass- 
working  shop,  wonderful  tubes  are  made  for  vacuum 
lamps,  elaborate  apparatus  of  glass  for  regulating 
temperature  of  tanks  of  oil  to  the  hundredth  part  of 
1°,  and  many  other  intricate  works  of  skill.  Then 
there  is  the  glassworker,  who  grirds  true  lenses  and 
flat  surfaces  to  marvelous  accuracy  for  optical  re- 
search. 

Respect  for  the  infinitesimal  is  a  cardinal  virtue 
in  the  bureau's  work;  no  factor  is  too  small  to  be 
ignored,  no  labor  too  exacting,  no  expense  too  great. . 
when  national  standards  are  involved.  Scientific 
discovery  now  rests  upon  that  refined  scrutiny  of 
things  which  marks  precision  measurement.  With 
more  exact  measurement  of  the  moon's  distance, 
Newton  might  have  announced  his  discoveries  many 
years  earlier.  Accurate  weighings  of  the  nitrogen 
of  the  air  showed  a  slight  excess  weight  due,  as  Ram- 
say found,  to  five  new  gases  which  we  inhale  with 
every  breath,  but  which  were  till  then  unknown.  So 
with  the  precise  manipulation  of  testing  and  meas- 
uring, radium  was  discovered.     Nearly  every  im- 


186       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

portant  scientific  discovery  of  modern  times  has  been 
in  whole  or  in  part  the  result  of  measuring  instru- 
ments of  remarkable  refinement. 

One  of  the  most  impressive  sights  to  be  seen  in 
this  institution  is  its  new  giant  testing  machine, 
which  has  a  compressive  power  of  2,300,000  pounds, 
and  a  pulling  power  ot  1,150,000  pounds.  This  lat- 
ter power  is  sufficient  to  pull  asunder  a  great  steel 
shaft  measuring  5  inches  in  diameter,  or  to  break  a 
huge  structural  column  more  than  twice  as  large. 
It  is  able  accurately  to  register  this  great  strain. 
Immediately  after  exerting  a  pressure  of  more  than 
2,000,000  pounds,  and  registering  this  degree  of 
pressure  with  great  accuracy,  it  will  crush  an  egg- 
shell and  register  the  pressure  required  in  that  oper- 
ation with  equal  fidelity. 

This  great  machine  may  be  likened  roughly  to  a 
huge  hydraulic  jack  wich  a  pair  of  registering  scales 
attached.  It  will  test  any  piece  of  material  from  a 
few  inches  in  length  to  30  feet.  Two  huge  screws, 
some  40  feet  long,  12  inches  in  diameter,  and  with 
threads  five-eighths  of  an  inch  deep,  are  used  to 
apply  the  power.  Oil  is  used  instead  of  water,  in 
great  cylinders,  to  furnish  the  power  for  pressure 
or  tension.  Only  a  small  part  of  the  great  pressure 
which  the  machine  exerts  falls  upon  the  weighing 
instrument.  Great  springs  are  distributed  through 
the  parts  of  the  machine  to  bear  the  strain  and  ab- 
sorb any  shock  which  might  result  from  the  break- 
ing of  the  material  being  tested.  Although  this  great 
testing  machine  is  vast  in  proportions  and  powerful 
in  its  strength,  a  still  more  powerful  machine  is  in- 


THE  BUREAU  OF  STANDARDS        187 

stalled  in  the  Bureau  of  Standards'  testing  plant  at 
Pittsburgh.  This  machine  is  able  to  exert  a  force  of 
10,000,000  pounds,  which  is  more  than  sufficient  to 
break  the  shaft  of  the  biggest  war  vessel  afloat. 

It  would  be  a  long  story  to  describe  the  variety  of 
materials  whose  properties  are  measured  by  the 
bureau  to  ascertain  their  quality.  They  range  from 
the  horseshoe  nail  of  the  army  mule  to  the  steel 
and  cement  for  the  great  Isthmian  Canal ;  from  the 
single  strand  of  silk  to  steel  rails ;  bookmaking  mate- 
rials, paper,  type,  ink,  glue,  cloth;  structural  mate- 
rials for  building  skj^scrapers,  bridges,  and  houses, 
including  also  paints,  varnishes,  protective  coatings ; 
office  supplies — such  as  writing  papers,  sealing  wax, 
mucilage,  ink,  paste,  tj^Dewriter  ribbons,  including 
even  red  tape.  The  permanency  of  public  records 
depends  upon  the  ink  and  the  paper,  and  until  re- 
cently both  were  doubtful. 

In  the  material-testing  section  a  self-acting  twine 
tester  unwinds  the  balls,  measures  the  yardage,  and 
rewinds  them  while  samples  are  tested  for  breaking 
strength.  Uncle  Sam's  twine  each  year  costs  a 
quarter-million  dollars,  and  must  be  full  measure 
of  strength  and  length.  The  cloth  in  the  national 
flags  and  that  used  in  bookbinding  and  other  pur- 
poses is  tested  as  to  as  many  qualities  as  required, 
sometimes  the  threads  to  the  inch,  sometimes  as  to 
the  wear,  sometimes  as  to  strength,  but  always  to 
select  the  best,  or  ascertain  whether  goods  are  of  the 
quality  specified.  The  quality  of  paper  was  once  ex- 
pert guesswork.  The  paper  was  felt  with  the  fingers 
and  tongue,  torn,  crumpled,  even  chewed,  and  the 


1S8        THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

expert  was  then  supposedly  able  to  guess  tlie  qual- 
ity. Now  every  element  is  measured  by  the  bureau — 
fiber,  sizing,  mineral ;  the  dye,  its  color  and  fastness 
are  studied;  while  the  bursting  strength,  weight, 
thickness,  and  folding  durability  are  measured  on 
automatic  machines  more  accurately  than  the  paper 
is  uniform.  So  thorough  is  this  work  that  the 
''recipe"  by  which  the  paper  was  made  can  be 
reproduced  from  the  tests. 

The  amazing  electrical  progress  of  the  past  half 
centmy  is  due  largely  to  the  wonderful  improve- 
ment in  methods  of  measuring  electricity  and  to  the 
single  world  system  of  units  of  electrical  measure. 
The  Bureau  of  Standards  has  had  experts  working 
for  years  to  fix  the  world's  electrical  units  and 
standards.  Some  of  these  researches  are  of  aston- 
ishing precision,  and,  while  they  can  be  appreciated 
only  by  the  expert,  everybody  will  profit  by  the  gen- 
eral electrical  advance  made  possible  by  the  greater 
exactness  of  the  standards.  The  standard  cells 
which  fix  the  value  of  the  volt  as  a  laboratory  stand- 
ard are  kept  constantly  in  oil  baths  regulated  to  a 
constant  temperature,  not  varying  by  so  much  as 
the  hundredth  of  a  degree.  The  standard  of  vol- 
tage is  now  the  mean  of  six  standard  cells  selected 
as  the  best  of  several  hundred.  The  standard  ohm, 
the  unit  of  resistance,  is  determined  by  the  resist- 
ance which  a  tube  of  mercury  of  minutely  specified 
dimensions  and  construction  offers  to  a  current  of 
electricity. 

The  bureau  is  investigating  how  electricity  cor- 
rodes iron  and  steel  in  underground  pipes  and  struc- 


o 


THE  BUREAU  OP  STANDARDS       189 

tures.  The  danger  is  such  as  seriously  to  imperil 
city  water  and  gas  mains,  great  buildings,  bridges, 
etc.  The  problem  is  being  studied  throughout  the 
United  States  by  the  bureau 's  experts. 

In  one  of  the  buildings  is  a  unique  dynamo  used 
for  wireless  work,  which  gives  electric  current  of 
100,000  waves  a  second  for  use  on  the  great  wireless 
mast  just  outside  the  building,  whose  top  reaches 
almost  as  high  as  the  Washington  Monument.  This 
is  connected  with  the  laboratories  of  the  bureau, 
where  experimental  research  is  in  progress  under 
the  Army  and  Navy  wireless  experts. 

In  the  room  where  precise  weighing  is  done  the 
temperature  is  under  strict  control,  for  if  it  rises 
or  falls  by  even  half  a  degree  while  accurate  work 
is  being  done,  or  even  for  several  hours  before- 
hand, air  currents  would  move  the  scale  pans  and 
hinder  the  work.  Even  the  heat  from  the  body  would 
cause  trouble,  hence  in  precise  weighing,  the  expert 
is  10  feet  away  and  by  rods  with  ingenious  mechan- 
isms changes  weights  from  pan  to  pan  and  adds  V- 
shaped  weights  of  fine  wire  to  either  side  to  effect 
a  balance.  The  motions  of  the  beam  are  read  by  a 
telescope  using  a  mirror  on  the  beam,  in  effect,  an 
optical  pointer  20  or  30  feet  long. 

One  balance  operates  in  a  vacuum  to  eliminate 
the  buoyant  force  of  the  air.  If  one  pan  of  the 
balances  were  higher  than  the  other,  the  weight 
would  appear  lighter,  because  it  is  farther  from  the 
center  of  the  earth.  If  a  2-pound  weight  is  raised  2 
inches,  these  balances  would  show  the  difference  in 
weight  due  to  the  increased  distance  from  the  earth. 


190       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

The  weights  are  kept  covered  in  glass  cases,  and 
the  least  dust  is  carefully  brushed  off  with  a  soft 
camel 's-hair  brush.  Chamois-covered  lifters  are 
used  to  handle  the  larger  weights,  for  the  finger- 
prints of  even  the  cleanest  hands  would  vitiate  them. 

The  smallest  weights  in  actual  use  are  one-twen- 
tieth milligram  or  one-sixth-millionth  of  an  ounce. 
They  are  of  aluminum,  thinner  than  tissue  paper, 
and  would  have  much  room  to  spare  if  set  on  a  pin- 
head.  The  balance  on  which  they  are  used  weighs 
easily  to  within  one-thirty-millionth  of  an  ounce. 

The  fundamental  standards  on  which  all  weights 
depend  are  made  of  platinum-iridium  alloy  pre- 
pared after  a  decade  of  investigation  and  testing 
by  an  international  commission  of  scientists.  These 
standards  are  kept  under  double  glass  covers,  in  a 
fireproof  vault,  and  are  rarely  used,  and  then  only 
to  check  up  the  best  working  standards. 

In  some  of  the  rooms  of  the  weights  and  measures 
section  are  to  be  seen  portable  outfits,  such  as  city 
sealers  would  carry,  charts  showing  how  much,  we 
pay  per  pound  for  the  commodities,  such  as  foods, 
done  up  and  sold  by  the  package,  and  other  evidence 
of  the  investigations  that  have  been  made  in  all  the 
States  of  the  Union.  These  investigations  have  done 
much  to  show  the  need  of  regulating  the  size  of  pack- 
ages. 

The  unit  of  length  of  the  United  States  is  the 
meter,  the  standard  measure  of  which  was  brought 
from  Paris  in  1890.  The  original  standard  bar  has 
been  reproduced  many  times  in  platinum-iridium. 
This  new  standard  resembles,  in  section,  the  capital 


THE  BUREAU  OF  STANDARDS        191 

letter  ''H,"  with  the  two  upright  lines  bending  out 
at  both  the  top  and  bottom.  The  lines  which  consti- 
tute the  scale  on  this  bar  are  so  finely  cut  that  they 
are  almost  invisible  to  the  naked  eye.  Two  of  these 
bars  are  on  deposit  in  the  Bureau  of  Standards  and 
one  of  them  was  taken  back  to  Paris  several  years 
ago  and  compared  with  the  original.  It  was  found 
that  in  15  years  there  was  less  than  the  fifty-thou- 
sandth part  of  an  inch  difference  in  its  length. 

When  a  measure  is  compared  with  this  prototype 
meter  bar,  the  two  are  packed  side  by  side  in  ice  in 
a  trough-like  comparator  iiiounted  on  independent 
piers.  The  observers  measure  the  position  of  the 
minute  marks  with  remarkably  accurate  micrometer 
screws  and  strong  microscopes.  Under  one  of  the 
buildings  of  the  Bureau  of  Standards  is  a  tunnel  in 
which  standards  of  length  are  compared.  There  is  a 
series  of  piers,  independent  of  the  floor,  with  which, 
by  means  of  the  meter  bar  and  a  5-meter  bar,  any 
bar  or  tape  up  to  50  meters  jnay  be  accurately  meas- 
ured. This  comparator  is  used  for  the  standardiza- 
tion of  the  invar  tapes  which  are  used  by  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey  and  the  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey  in  their  work  of  accurate  base  meas- 
urements. On  the  opposite  side  of  the  tunnel  is  a 
long  steel  bench,  164  feet  long,  in  which  platinum- 
iridium  plugs  are  set  at  intervals.  On  each  plug  a 
cross  line  has  been  ruled  and  the  distance  between 
the  lines  is  determined. 

A  whole  floor  of  one  of  the  largest  buildings  is 
fitted  up  for  precise  determinations  of  temperatures 
by  means  of  the  melting  points  of  various  elements ; 


192       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

for  the  standardization  of  clinical  thermometers,  of 
which  many  thousands  are  tested  annually;  for  the 
accurate  measurement  of  temperature  by  means  of 
resistance  thermometers  in  which  the  liquid  resists 
freezing.  The  range  extends  down  far  below  the 
temperature  of  liquid  air  and  up  as  high  as  solar 
temperature.  At  higher  temperatures  optical  means 
must  be  used,  for  all  the  elements  melt  in  the  in- 
tense heat.  The  work  of  this  division  underlies  all 
metallurgy.  The  instruments  used  to  measure  the 
heat  value  of  fuels  are  standardized  here.  This  is  of 
growing  importance,  since  large  contracts  now  pay 
for  coal  on  the  basis  of  heating  value,  rather  than  by 
gross  weight.  Pyrometry,  another  branch  of  this 
work,  is  devoted  to  measuring  high  temperatures, 
and  devices  of  extraordinary  ingenuity  have  been 
invented  to  cover  heat  ranges  where  ordinary  ther- 
mometers fail. 

The  optical  experts  use  waves  of  light  as  units 
of  measure ;  they  analyze  colors,  study  transparency 
of  many  materials  and  their  power  to  reflect  the 
various  colors  and  even  the  light  invisible  to  the 
unaided  eye.  With  the  ultramicroscope,  the  motions 
of  invisible  particles  of  silver  are  studied,  particles 
which,  though  too  small  to  be  seen  directly,  vitiate 
the  measurement  of  electric  current  in  precision 
work.  Radiation,  meaning  light  and  heat  energy,  is 
measured  by  amarvelous  instrument  called  the  bolom- 
eter, in  which  a  millionth  of  a  degree  of  tempera- 
ture is  easily  registered.  The  bureau  ascertains  the 
quality  of  lenses  by  testing  the  focus,  curvature,  and 
other  properties.    Most  scientific  facts  have  reached 


THE  BUREAU  OF  STANDARDS       193 

us  througli  glass,  and  in  the  form  of  a  lens  it  is  the 
eye  of  science.  A  defect  in  curvature  would  mar 
every  view  taken  or  seen  through  it. 

The  sugar  laboratory  receives  samples  of  sugar 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  at  the  ports  of  entry. 
The  impurities  are  measured  by  the  twist  which  a 
solution  of  the  sugar  gives  to  light  waves  passing 
through  it.  This  laboratory  also  supplies  perfectly 
pure  sugar  for  $18  a  pound.  This  sugar  is  used  to 
test  the  instruments  with  which  the  heating  value 
of  fuels  is  measured,  as  well  as  to  fix  the  100  per  cent 
point  in  sugar  testing. 

In  one  room  the  visitor's  watch  must  be  removed, 
for  here  is  the  strongest  magnet  in  the  world,  which 
will  draw  nails  held  loosely  in  the  hand  from  a  dis- 
tance of  a  foot ;  so  strong,  too,  that  if  a  nail  is  placed 
in  the  closed  fist  the  hand  can  be  turned  only  with 
great  effort.  This  magnet  is  used  to  study  the 
strange  effects  of  magnetism  on  light  waves,  not 
merely  twisting,  but  actually  lengthening  or  shorten- 
ing the  light  waves  themselves. 

In  minute  measures  of  length  a  remarkable  opti- 
cal instrument  is  used,  in  which  light  waves  are  the 
units.  .  The  interferometer  measures  wave  lengths 
which  would  take  75,000  to  cover  an  inch.  One  may 
step  up  to  the  demonstration  interferometer  and 
measure  for  himself  with  wave  lengths  of  light.  To 
illustrate,  a  bar  of  steel,  3  feet  by  31/2  inches,  may  be 
bent  by  a  visiting  card,  and  the  infinitesimal  bending 
perceived  by  this  remarkable  instrument.  The  bar  is 
supported  at  its  ends,  and  bears  upon  its  middle  a 
small  mirror.    Above  the  bar  is  a  yoke  upon  ^hich 


194       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

is  fixed  another  interferometer  mirror  only  partly 
silvered.  When  the  shaft  is  bent  downward  ever  so 
slightly,  he  sees  reflected  a  series  of  concentric  bright 
and  dark  circles,  resembling  a  target,  and  as  the 
shaft  is  bent  the  circles  expand  outward  like  the 
circles  in  water  when  a  stone  is  dropped  in.  As  each 
new  circle  forms,  the  bar  has  been  bent  one  one-lmn- 
dred-thousandth  of  an  inch.  With  this  instrument, 
five  or  six  new  circles  may  be  seen  to  form  at  a  touch, 
so  that  the  total  flexure  would  be,  say,  one  twenty- 
thousandth  of  an  inch.  The  interferometer  is  used 
in  many  refined  researches,  particularly  in  fixing 
standards  of  length  and  measuring  light  waves. 

The  results  of  scientific  research  during  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century  have  been  far-reaching.  But 
the  scientists  to-day  declare  that  the  lessons  of 
these  25  years  have  demonstrated  that  more  wonder- 
ful results  lie  ahead  than  have  been  achieved  in  the 
past,  and  that  no  man  is  able  to  predict  what  strides 
toward  ideal  living  conditions  and  racial  betterment 
may  be  made  in  the  half  century  immediately  ahead. 
It  is  to  the  pioneering  work  of  such  institutions  as 
the  Bureau  of  Standards  that  these  results  will  be 
due. 


XV. 

THE  PUBLIC  HEALTH. 

The  Federal  Government  deals  witli  problems  re- 
lating to  the  public  health  through  five  separate 
bureaus  under  the  administration  of  five  of  the  ex- 
ecutive departments.  Foremost  among  these 
bureaus,  by  reason  of  the  wide  range  of  its  work,  is 
the  Public  Health  and  Marine-Hospital  Service, 
which  is  under  the  Treasury  Department.  Through 
the  Bureau  of  Chemistry,  which  protects  the  national 
food  supply,  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry,  which 
inspects  the  Nation's  meat  products,  and  the  Bureau 
of  Entomology,  which  is  leading  the  country-wide 
fight  for  the  abolition  of  the  fly  and  the  mosquito, 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  has  a  large  share  in 
health  conservation  in  the  United  States.  The  War 
Department  is  represented  by  the  Medical  Corps  of 
the  United  States  Army,  having  to  its  credit  the  final 
proof  that  the  mosquito  is  responsible  for  yellow 
fever,  and  the  additional  credit  of  demonstrating 
the  possibilities  of  modern  sanitation  and  preven- 
tive medicine.  The  Navy  Department  is  represented 
by  the  Medical  Corps  of  the  Navy.  After  these  have 
all  done  their  work,  along  comes  the  Department  of 

195 


196       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Commerce  and  Labor,  and,  through  the  Census 
Office,  gathers  the  statistics  which  show  the  effect 
of  the  work  of  all  the  other  departments  in  their 
efforts  at  conquering  disease,  reducing  mortality, 
and  promoting  longevity. 

That  the  health  of  the  people  is  a  problem  of 
prime  importance,  and  that  it  can  be  promoted, 
cutting  down  the  death  rate  and  lengthening  the 
span  of  life,  is  abundantly  attested  by  vital  statistics 
in  every  civilized  country.  It  is  estimated  that  more 
than  a  million  preventable  deaths  occur  each  year 
in  the  United  States  and  that  these  inflict  an  eco- 
nomic loss  upon  the  Nation  of  more  than  a  billion 
dollars.  Between  the  census  years  of  1890  and  1900, 
the  average  American  saw  his  journey  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave  lengthened  from  31  years,  1 
month,  and  6  days,  to  35  years,  2  months,  and  12 
days.  The  census  of  1910  probably  will  show  an  ad- 
ditional four  years  added  to  the  span  of  average  life. 

According  to  insurance  statistics,  the  mortality 
rate  among  the  industrial  classes  is  nearly  double 
that  among  the  well-to-do.  In  Austria  and  Spain, 
where  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  health  is  widespread, 
the  death  rate  is  nearly  double  that  obtaining  in  the 
United  States,  where  ideal  conditions  are  still  far 
from  being  realized,  and  in  India  the  average  life 
is  but  little  more  than  half  as  long  as  the  average 
life  in  America.  The  death  rate  from  tuberculosis 
has  fallen  off  one-half  since  Koch  discovered  its 
germ.  The  death  rate  from  diphtheria  is  only  a 
third  as  great  in  Chicago  to-day  as  it  was  a  genera- 
tion ago.     Every  time  the  world's   death  rate  is 


DR.  WILEY  AT  WORK. 


THE  PUBLIC  HEALTH  197 

cut  down  one  per  thousand,  it  means  the  saving  of 
a  million  and  a  half  lives  a  year. 

From  these  statements  it  will  appear  that  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  Federal  Government  in  the  promotion 
of  the  national  health  is  one  of  its  most  impoitant 
concerns.  In  the  promotion  of  these  ends  the  bu- 
reaus concerned  with  the  public  health  find  a  vast 
deal  of  interesting  work  to  do.  The  Public  Health 
and  Marine-Hospital  Service,  presided  over  by  that 
eminent  sanitarian,  Dr.  Walter  Wyman,*has  a  wide 
field  of  activities.  Its  work  in  putting  down  yellow 
fever  in  the  South  a  few  years  ago,  its  labors  in  pro- 
tecting San  Francisco  from  a  threatened  outbreak 
of  pestilence  after  the  great  earthquake,  its  services 
in  stamping  out  bubonic  plague  in  California,  its 
epoch-making  investigations  of  the  hookworm  dis- 
ease, its  work  of  artificially  growing  the  bacillus  of 
leprosy,  its  labor  toward  uniting  the  Western  World 
in  international  sanitary  work,  and  its  successful 
resistance  of  the  threatened  cholera  epidemics  which 
stormed  the  shores  of  America  in  1892  and  1893,  and 
again  in  1910  and  1911,  are  a  few  instances  where  it 
has  come  prominently  into  the  public  eye.  But  it 
does  a  thousand  things  in  the  course  of  a  year  which 
enable  the  average  American  to  feel  a  greater  se- 
curity against  the  dangers  of  disease  than  he  other- 
wise could. 

All  through  every  day  and  night  of  every  year 
it  stands  guard  at  the  ports  of  the  country  to  see 
that  no  loathsome  or  dangerous  diseases  are  per- 
mitted to  come  into  the  country  through  those  ports. 
The  first  person  v/ho  boards  an  incoming  steamer 


•  Died  November  11. 1911. 


198       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

after  it  takes  up  its  pilot  is  the  quarantine  officer, 
who  is  a  representative  of  the  Public  Health  and 
Marine-Hospital  Service.  He  examines  the  officers 
of  the  ship  and  only  when  they  are  able  to  show  a 
clean  bill  of  health  will  he  allow  the  ship  to  go  to  its 
dock.  Every  one  of  the  aliens  who  come  into  the 
United  States  must  undergo  an  examination  by  its 
officials. 

The  service  also  has  charge  of  interstate  sani- 
tation and  the  suppression  of  epidemics,  cooper- 
ating with  the  States  by  lending  its  experts  to  them 
for  the  ascertainment  of  the  cause  of  epidemics  and 
for  planning  campaigns  to  check  them.  It  has  its 
finger  uj^on  the  pulse  of  the  country,  collecting  data 
regarding  contagious  and  infectious  diseases  with 
the  view  to  advancing  our  knowledge  regarding  their 
prevention  and  suppression,  which  is  a  fundamental 
duty  of  the  Federal  Government  in  its  relation  to  the 
public  health. 

In  the  supervision  of  the  sale  of  viruses,  serums, 
toxins,  and  similar  products,  the  Public  Health  Serv- 
ice renders  great  assistance  to  the  sick  of  the  coun- 
try. Without  some  central  agency  to  adopt  certain 
standards  for  these  materials,  and  to  see  that  they 
are  maintained,  people  might  be  in  danger  of  all 
sorts  of  infection.  All  vaccine  virus,  diphtheria 
antitoxins,  and  the  like,  must  measure  up  to  the 
standards  of  strength  and  purity  set  by  the  service 
or  they  can  not  be  sold  in  interstate  commerce.  The 
Hygienic  Laboratory  has  prepared  standard  units 
for  antitetanic  and  antidiphtheric  serums,  and  sends 
out  to  the  laboratories  making  these  serums  a  stand- 


THE   PUBLIC   HEALTH  199 

ard  unit  for  comparison.  The  Belgian  Government 
and  the  great  Wellcome  Laboratories  of  England 
are  using  the  standards  set  by  this  Hygienic  Labora- 
tory, as  is  also  the  Brazilian  Government. 

Another  interesting  activity  of  the  service  is  the 
standardization  of  all  heroic  remedies.  Digitalis 
and  other  remedies  have  varied  much  in  strength, 
and  no  doubt  thousands  of  people  have  lost  their 
lives  by  overdoses  of  these  remedies  administered 
ignorantly,  on  account  of  the  lack  of  uniformity  of 
strength.  One  of  the  most  notable  contributions 
that  has  yet  been  made  to  the  literature  of  sanitation 
was  made  by  the  Public  Health  and  Marine-Hospital 
Service  in  the  course  of  its  studies  on  milk  and  its 
relation  to  epidemic  diseases.  There  are  more  than 
20,000,000  milch  cows  in  the  United  States,  and  they 
give  perhaps  a  billion  gallons  of  milk  a  year.  If  milk 
is  a  disease  carrier,  ignorance  of  the  fact  might  cost 
untold  thousands  of  lives,  so  the  service  started  out 
to  find  just  how  far  milk  may  act  as  the  transpor- 
tation system  of  the  germ  kingdom. 

When  its  investigators  set  to  work  to  trace  down 
epidemics  of  tj^Dhoid  fever,  they  found  that  milk 
is  one  of  the  greatest  known  disseminators  of  the 
disease.  In  Savannah,  Ga.,  only  19  cases  of  typhoid 
occurred  during  a  recent  year  from  January  to  May. 
During  May  95  cases  were  reported.  Sixty-three  of 
these  cases  were  traced  to  a  single  dairy,  and  a 
majority  of  the  remainder  of  the  cases  were  thought 
to  have  been  infected  from  these  other  cases.  The 
infected  dairy  sold  milk  at  wholesale,  as  well  as  re- 
tail, among  its  wholesale  patrons  being  a  bakery. 


200       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

over  which  a  typhoid  patient  lived.  The  dairy  had 
been  infected  by  the  use  of  the  milk  cans,  which  had 
been  returned  unsterilized  from  this  bakeshop. 

Another  great  benefit  following  research  work 
was  the  discovery  of  hookworm  infection,  which  was 
sapping  the  vitality  of  large  numbers  of  people  in 
an  important  section  of  the  country.  The  knowledge 
thus  acquired  is  now  being  applied  in  an  extensive 
campaign  against  the  disease.  Other  investigations 
of  equal  importance  relating  to  typhoid  fever  have 
been  conducted  during  the  past  five  years,  and  will 
ultimately  contribute  to  a  reduction  of  this  disease 
in  the  United  States. 

The  service  is  also  at  the  head  of  the  nation-wide 
campaign  against  rabies,  and  has  pointed  out  how 
the  dreaded  disease  may  be  completely  wiped  out. 
It  furnishes  the  virus  which  is  used  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Pasteur  treatment  to  State  boards  of 
health,  and  administers  it  to  patients  who  have  been 
bitten  by  animals  suspected  of  having  hydrophobia. 
In  the  Hygienic  Laboratory  the  experimenters  make 
use  of  many  dogs,  cats,  guinea  pigs,  and  mice.  Many 
a  human  life  has  been  saved  by  the  experiments  thus 
made.  In  1853  two  water  companies  experimented 
with  a  half  million  people  in  London,  with  the  re- 
sult that  there  were  3,476  deaths.  The  same  year  a 
Leipsic  scientist  experimented  with  56  mice,  and 
had  the  lessons  he  learned  by  those  experiments  been 
heeded,  the  cholera  epidemic  in  London  would  have 
been  averted.  Using  monkeys  for  the  purpose,  simi- 
lar studies  have  been  made  in  the  Hygienic  Labora- 
tory with  respect  to  measles.    This  disease  has  been 


THE  PUBLIC  HEALTH  201 

transmitted  to  these  animals,  and  it  is  the  hope  of 
the  laboratory  authorities  that  a  curative  serum  will 
soon  be  found  which  will  save  the  lives  of  large  num- 
bers of  children. 

It  costs  less  than  a  million  dollars  a  year  to  run 
the  Bureau  of  Chemistry  of  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, yet  this  bureau  is  charged  with  the  duty  of 
guaranteeing  the  quality  of  the  manufactured  foods 
and  drugs  of  the  United  States,  so  far  as  they  cross 
State  boundary  lines.  It  is  estimated  that  these 
foodstuffs  and  drugs  cost  the  people  at  least  $6,000,- 
000,000,  so  that  the  insurance  of  the  quality  of  the 
things  the  i3eople  take  into  their  stomachs  is  the 
cheapest  insurance  in  the  world.  While  the  protec- 
tion afforded  by  the  pure  food  and  drug  laws  can 
not  reach  its  maximum  without  an  intelligent  public 
sentiment  behind  it,  yet  the  growing  interest  of  the 
Nation  in  pure-food  regulations  is  tending  toward 
that  end.  While  in  former  years  it  was  estimated 
that  very  little  of  the  manufactured  foodstuffs  was 
properly  made,  or  at  least  properly  branded,  Dr. 
Harvey  W.  Wiley  now  estimates  that  at  least  90  per 
cent  of  the  food  and  drugs  of  the  country  are  made 
and  sold  in  compliance  with  the  law. 

So  effective  has  been  the  work  of  the  bureau  that 
France  has  established  a  pure-food  system  modeled 
after  our  own,  and  other  nations  are  borrowing  ideas 
from  it.  The  bureau  has  over  20  branch  labora- 
tories, scattered  among  the  principal  cities  of  the 
country,  and  wherever  its  experts  have  reason  to 
suspect  that  the  pure-food  law  is  being  violated,  they 
take  samples  and  analyze  them.    If  the  samples  do 


202       THE  AMERICAN  GOVEENMENT 

not  measure  up  to  the  requirements  of  the  law,  either 
in  the  matter  of  branding  them  or  in  their  quality, 
the  stock  from  which  they  were  taken  is  seized  and 
held  pending  the  action  of  the  courts.  This  usually 
is  favorable  to  the  bureau ;  in  fact,  nearly  95  per  cent 
of  the  cases  turn  out  that  way. 

The  seizures  cover  almost  every  kind  of  food  and 
drug  in  the  United  States.  Some  time  ago  a  widely 
advertised  skin  food  was  examined  and  found  to  be 
nothing  more  than  Epsom  salts,  with  a  little  pink 
coloring  matter  added.  In  another  case,  some  straw- 
berry jeliy  was  seized,  and  upon  examination  it  was 
found  to  be  made  up  of  glucose,  timothy  seed,  and 
coloring  matter.  Dozens  of  kinds  of  patent  medi- 
cines have  been  seized,  and  in  nearly  every  instance 
bottles  which  sold  for  at  least  a  dollar  retail,  con- 
tained only  a  few  cents '  worth  of  material,  and  that 
not  particularly  meritorious.  One  of  the  chief  en- 
deavors of  the  bureau  is  to  put  out  of  business  that 
lot  of  human  vampires  who  would  fatten  upon  the 
very  flesh  of  those  afflicted  with  incurable  diseases. 
With  their  fake  cures  for  cancer,  tuberculosis,  drug 
addiction,  and  other  diseases  which  bring  so  much 
woe  to  the  human  race,  they  extract  millions  of  dol- 
lars from  the  pockets  of  those  who  can  least  afford 
it,  and  leave  them  in  a  last  state  that  is  worse  than 
their  first.  Cancer  cures  that  have  been  advertised 
as  possessing  wonderful  properties,  and  carrying 
with  them  a  long  list  of  seemingly  good  testimonials, 
upon  examination  by  the  bureau  have  been  found  to 
contain  nothing  more  curative  than  water.  Others 
which  were  declared  to  be  able  to  draw  out  the  worst 


THE  PUBLIC  HEALTH  203 

cancer  had  notliing  more  astringent  in  them  than 
charcoal.  In  drug  habit  cures  the  bureau  has  found 
that  in  most  cases  they  contain  other  habit-forming 
drugs  as  bad  as  the  one  for  which  they  claim  to  be 
a  cure.  Hundreds  of  these  ''cures"  have  been  de- 
nied the  use  of  the  mails  through  the  activities  of  the 
Bureau  of  Chemistry,  and  thousands  of  poor,  dis- 
traught mortals  suffering  from  incurable  diseases, 
or  who  have  dear  ones  suffering  from  them,  are 
protected  from  the  schemes  of  impostors  who  would 
grow  rich  upon  their  misery  without  the  slightest 
attempt  to  alleviate  it. 

The  Bureau  of  Chemistry  has  other  functions  to 
perform  than  those  of  inspecting  foods  and  drugs, 
although  about  90  per  cent  of  its  activities  are  con- 
cerned with  the  enforcement  of  the  pure-food  law. 
It  is  engaged  in  extensive  researches  in  the  field  of 
nutritive  value  of  foods,  and  is  making  a  detailed 
study  of  the  deterioration  of  eggs  and  poultry  in 
shipment  and  storage.  An  investigation  of  the  fish 
and  oyster  supply  is  also  under  way.  It  is  the  aim 
of  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry  to  be  able  to  afford  the 
people  protection  in  their  food  and  also  to  give  them 
such  information  as  will  give  them  refuge  from  the 
reign  of  high  prices  by  pointing  out  those  foodstuffs 
which  possess  the  happy  combination  of  high  nutri- 
tive value,  low  price,  and  palatable  taste. 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  the  bureau  had  to 
face  in  the  beginning  of  its  work  was  the  elimination 
of  coal  tar,  or  aniline  dyes  in  coloring  foodstuffs, 
candies,  and  drinks.  A  half  century  ago  a  young 
English  chemist  was  engaged  in  trying  to  find  a  new 


204       THE  AMEEICAN  GOVERNMENT 

process  of  making  quinine.  An  accidental  combina- 
tion gave  him  a  color  known  as  ' '  mauve. ' '  That  ac- 
cident resulted  in  opening  the  way  for  the  making 
of  aniline  dyes,  of  which  there  are  now  more  than 
2,000  colors  in  use.  Before  the  days  of  pure-food 
laws,  these  dyes  were  used  widely  in  the  preparation 
of  food  supplies. 

Few  agencies  of  the  Federal  Government  have 
ever  been  able  to  work  such  reforms  in  such  a  short 
time  as  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry.  It  has  been  a 
storm  center  since  the  enactment  of  the  pure-food 
law,  and  will  remain  so  as  long  as  men  are  interested 
in  making  money  by  selling  questionable  food  prod- 
ucts. Its  fights  on  the  question  of  ''What  is 
whisky  r'  and  in  the  matter  of  bleached  flour  were 
memorable  combats  with  powerful  interests.  "When 
the  pure-food  law  was  pending  Eepresentative  Stan- 
ley, of  Kentucky,  showed  his  fellow  Members  of  the 
House  how  some  of  the  whiskies  of  that  day  were 
made.  Holding  up  a  concoction  which  he  had  pre- 
pared before  their  eyes,  he  remarked  that  it  would 
make  a  howling  dervish  out  of  a  monk  and  a  rabbit 
to  spit  in  a  bulldog's  face. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  if  the  flies  and  mos- 
quitoes of  the  country  could  be  banished  from  the 
United  States  at  one  fell  swoop,  and  if  all  the  people 
of  the  country  could  be  induced  to  observe  the  prin- 
ciples laid  down  in  antispitting  ordinances,  it  would 
result  in  the  saving  every  year  of  enough  lives  to 
make  an  army  as  great  as  ever  marched  to  a  single 
battle  in  the  history  of  America.  One  authority 
goes  even  further  than  this,  and  declares  that  a  quar- 


THE  PUBLIC  HEALTH  205 

ter  of  a  million  deaths  annually  in  tlie  United  States 
are  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  mosquito  and  the 
fly  alone.  The  principal  prosecuting  attorney  in  the 
case  of  the  fly  and  the  mosquito  to-day  is  the  Bureau 
of  Entomology"  of  the  Department  of  AgTiculture. 
A  most  remarkable  case  it  has  made  out  against  the 
'fly. 

The  bureau  caused  414  members  of  the  fly  tribe  to 
be  captured  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  they 
were  searched  for  incriminating  evidence.  Stored 
away  on  the  fuzzy  bodies  and  legs  of  the  culprits 
were  found  untold  millions  of  germs.  In  some  in- 
stances, a  single  fly  carried  more  than  a  million. 
These  were  flies  caught  in  carefully  sterilized  nets, 
so  that  none  of  the  germs  found  on  them  could  be 
laid  at  the  door  of  the  nets.  Then  each  fly  was 
placed  in  a  separate  sterilized  bottle,  and  an  accu- 
rately measured  quantity  of  sterilized  water  was  put 
into  the  bottle  with  it.  Mr.  Fly  was  allowed  to  swim 
around  until  exhausted,  and  a  drop  of  the  water 
was  extracted  and  the  germs  on  it  counted.  A  care- 
ful record  was  kept  of  the  showing  made  by  each 
fly,  and  the  lowest  number  was  500,  while  some  of 
them  showed  6,000,000  germs.  And  then  there  has 
been  an  untold  amount  of  other  evidence  gathered. 
During  the  Spanish-American  War  lime  was  used 
in  the  latrines,  and  the  flies  that  swarmed  around 
the  mess  tents  would  have  lime  plainly  visible  on 
their  feet.  In  New  York  filth  was  dyed  with  red  ink 
and  put  on  the  streets.  Flies  soon  showed  up  in  the 
house  with  red  on  their  legs.  The  Bureau  of  Ento- 
mology, as  prosecuting  attorney  against  the  fly,  has 


206       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

prepared  several  pamphlets  relative  to  the  case,  and 
is  ready  to  make  any  reader  the  sitting  judge  who 
will  take  time  to  write  for  these  briefs  in  the  case 
of  The  People  v.  The  Fly.  It  also  is  ready  to  submit 
evidence  to  any  reader  in  the  case  of  The  People  v. 
The  Mosquito. 


XVI. 

THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION. 

When  James  Smithson  wrote  his  will  making  a 
bequest  of  half  a  million  dollars  for  the  founding 
of  an  institution  for  "the  increase  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge  among  men,"  he  builded  better  than  he 
knew.  Perhaps  never  in  history  has  a  half  million 
dollars  yielded  such  splendid  returns  as  that  with 
which  James  Smithson  endowed  the  institution  which 
bears  his  name.  Many  of  the  most  portentous  dis- 
coveries in  the  history  of  science  have  been  made 
through  the  activities  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
The  foundations  of  the  telegraph  and  the  telephone 
were  laid  by  its  jSrst  secretary,  Joseph  Henry,  as  was 
also  the  understructure  of  the  science  of  meteorol- 
ogy. Its  second  secretary,  Spencer  F.  Baird,  insti- 
tuted the  work  of  fish  culture,  without  which  the  food 
fishes  of  this  country,  preyed  upon  by  their  natural 
enemies,  and  gathered  in  by  the  millions  by  man, 
must  have  had  such  great  inroads  made  upon  them 
that  the  commercial  value  of  the  Nation's  fisheries 
would  be  vastly  less  than  it  is  under  scientific  propa- 
gation. Its  third  secretary,  Samuel  P.  Langley,  is 
credited  with  the  beginning  of  the  transmission  of 
time  signals  as  applied  to  railroad  operations  in  the 

207 


208       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

United  States.  It  was  his  work,  also,  which  demon- 
strated the  remarkable  fact  that  the  firefly  is  forty- 
nine  times  as  efficient  as  a  lighting  agent  as  the 
average  gas  jet,  and  which  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
series  of  investigations,  which  may  yet  prove  vastly 
important  to  mankind.  He  also  planned  first  a  sys- 
tematic effort  toward  mastering  the  problems  in- 
volved in  the  transmission  of  the  heat  and  light  of 
the  sun  to  the  earth,  and  initiated  the  investigations 
which  are  being  made  by  all  of  the  meteorological 
agencies  of  the  civilized  nations  to  find  out  the  rela- 
tion existing  between  the  sun  and  the  weather. 
Further  than  this,  it  was  his  research  into  the  field 
of  aerodynamics  which  made  possible  the  flying  ua- 
chine  of  to-day.  The  Wright  brothers  have  both  tes- 
tified that  it  was  upon  the  work  of  Secretary  Langley 
that  they  founded  their  efforts  to  solve  the  problem 
which  the  birds  have  mastered  from  the  beginning. 

The  present  secretary  of  the  Institution  is  Charles 
D.  Walcott,  who  was  for  many  years  Director  of 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  and  organizer 
of  the  United  States  Reclamation  Service.  Mr. 
Walcott  is  one  of  the  leading  American  geologists 
and  has  borne  an  important  part  in  the  development 
of  the  natural  resources  of  the  United  States. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  undertaking  in  which 
the  Smithsonian  is  engaged  to-day  is  the  effort  of 
Director  C.  G.  Abbot,  of  the  Astrophysical  Observ- 
atory, to  solve  the  problems  of  the  heat  and  light  of 
the  sun.  All  life,  all  being,  everything  with  which 
humanity  is  concerned,  depends  upon  this  heat  and 
this  light.    Decrease  the  amount  of  heat  which  comes 


THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION     209 

from  the  sun  by  a  few  degrees,  and  the  world  would 
become  a  frozen  sphere,  enshrouded  in  impenetrable 
darkness. 

Prof.  Abbot,  who  succeeded  Dr.  Langley  as  Direc- 
tor of  the  Observatory,  after  a  series  of  investiga- 
tions, declared  it  probable  that  there  were  certain 
variations  in  the  amount  of  heat  received  from  the 
sun  at  different  times,  and  that  these  variations 
probably  lie  at  the  bottom  of  all  weather  changes 
on  earth.  So  he  set  to  work  to  study  sunbeams. 
From  that  day  to  this  all  manner  of  traps  have  been 
constructed  in  which  to  catch  these  sunbeams  and  to 
compel  them  to  add  their  mite  to  the  sum  of  human 
knowledge  about  the  great  source  of  our  light  and 
life.  All  sorts  of  remarkable  instruments  have  been 
made  to  study  the  sunbeams,  and  to  measure  their 
relative  intensity.  One  of  these  is  kno^vn  as  the  bo- 
lometer, a  device  of  Dr.  Langley.  His  earlier  instru- 
ment would  record  a  difference  of  temperature  as 
minute  as  a  hundred-thousandth  part  of  a  degree. 
Later  its  sensitiveness  was  so  increased  that  it  was 
able  to  record  a  change  as  minute  as  the  millionth 
part  of  a  degree.  This  has  been  increased  still  fur- 
ther from  time  to  time,  until  now  the  bolometers  of 
the  Astrophysical  Observatory  are  able  to  detect 
changes  in  temperature  even  down  to  the  hundred- 
millionth  part  of  one  degree.  How  much  more  sen- 
sitive this  is  than  the  human  body  is  disclosed  by  the 
fact  that  few  men  are  able  to  guess  the  temperature 
within  five  degrees. 

The  manner  in  which  the  bolometer  is  used  and 
constructed  is  most  interesting.    It  is  operated  upon 


210       THE  AMERICAN  GOVEENMENT 

the  principle  tliat  a  wire  will  carry  less  electricity 
when  warm  than  when  cold.  Therefore,  the  end 
sought  is  to  concentrate  the  light  or  heat  waves  upon 
a  wire  and  register  the  change  of  the  amount  of 
electricity  passing  through  it.  The  light  and  heat 
from  the  sun  is  received  first  by  a  plain  mirror,  which 
throws  the  beams  of  light  into  another  mirror,  con- 
cave in  shape.  This  in  turn  concentrates  the  beam, 
which  has  meanwhile  passed  through  a  great  prism 
of  rock  salt,  as  clear  as  glass,  onto  a  platinum  thread 
smaller  than  a  spider's  filament,  through  which  a 
current  of  electricity  is  kept  passing.  The  prism 
serves  to  analyze  the  beam  into  its  different  com- 
ponent colors. 

Then  the  bolometer,  placed  successively  in  these 
different  colors,  measures  their  temperatures.  The 
current  is  measured  by  a  galvanometer  or  little  bal- 
ance made  of  a  thread  of  spun  glass,  5  inches  long 
and  as  fine  as  a  human  hair.  This  is  fastened  to  a 
support  by  suspending  it  on  a  thread  of  spun  quartz, 
2  feet  long  and  a  five-thousandth  part  of  an  inch  in 
diameter.  In  the  exact  middle  of  the  spun-glass 
beam  is  fastened  a  mirror  as  small  as  a  pinhead,  so 
perfectly  made  that  every  point  of  the  mirror's  side 
will  touch  when  placed  on  a  6-foot  globe.  The  mir- 
ror weighs  no  more  than  the  hind  leg  of  a  fly. 

With  this  instrument  a  change  of  heat  no  greater 
than  that  given  off  by  a  candle  5  miles  away  is  easily 
recognized.  By  the  use  of  a  spectroscope  in  connec- 
tion with  the  bolometer.  Director  Abbot  is  able  to 
study  the  heat  of  the  invisible  rays  of  light  known  as 
the  infra-red  and  the  ultra-violet.     The  Astrophysi- 


THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION     211 

cal  Observatory  makes  use  of  pyrlieliometers  and 
other  extremely  sensitive  instruments  in  its  investi- 
gations. It  has  constructed  a  standard  pyrheliom- 
eter  which  will  be  recognized  as  such  by  all  of  the 
investigating  agencies  of  the  world.  It  maintains 
a  station  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Wilson,  Cal.,  6,000 
feet  above  the  sea  level;  does  occasional  work  upon 
the  summit  of  Mount  Whitney,  14,500  feet  above  sea 
level,  and  at  Washington,  near  the  sea  level. 

The  work  which  has  been  done  during  the  past 
two  or  three  years  leads  to  the  belief  that  Dr.  Lang- 
ley's  theories  of  solar  radiation  will  be  worked  out, 
and  that  in  the  years  to  come  mankind  will  be  able 
to  forecast  the  weather  with  far  greater  accuracy. 
How  important  the  mastery  of  weather  conditions 
would  be  can  not  be  appreciated  at  first  blush.  The 
farmer  would  never  need  to  plant  a  crop  and  have  it 
overtaken  by  a  destructive  drought.  Knowing  what 
the  season  would  be  in  advance,  he  would  sow  crops 
requiring  little  moisture  in  dry  seasons,  and  those 
requiring  a  great  deal  of  it  in  wet  seasons.  The 
railroads  could  make  their  business  conform  to  fu- 
ture weather  conditions,  and  could  run  their  excur- 
sions at  such  times  as  rain  would  not  interfere.  No 
one  would  ever  need  to  be  caught  napping  by  a  cold 
wave  or  a  great  flood.  Political  conventions  could 
always  be  held  when  the  weather  was  seasonable.  In 
a  tnousand  ways  such  a  system  of  accurate  weather 
forecasting  would  prove  of  inestimable  value  to  the 
human  race. 

The  foregoing  instances  of  the  activities  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  in  the  direction  of  the  in- 


212       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

crease  of  human  knowledge  show  how  effectively  it 
has  wrought  in  the  past  in  increasing  such  knowl- 
edge as  may  be  applied  for  bettering  the  conditions 
of  the  human  race,  but  the  officials  of  this  Institu- 
tion believe  its  usefulness  is  only  well  begun.  They 
point  out  that  the  Institution  is  well  fitted  to  organ-  • 
ize  and  supervise  investigations  and  explorations  on 
which  the  income  of  $20,000,000  could  be  spent  wisely 
and  effectively.  Its  activities  are  not  limited  to  in- 
vestigations in  the  field  of  science  and  art,  but  it  is 
able  to  make  historical  and  ethnological  researches, 
and  statistical  inquiries  with  reference  to  physical, 
moral,  and  political  subjects. 

One  of  the  things  it  hopes  to  do  in  the  future,  if 
funds  can  be  raised  for  that  purpose,  is  to  make  a 
world-wide  study  of  earthquakes  through  a  national 
seismological  laboratory  under  its  direction.  The 
immense  destruction  of  life  and  property  by  large 
earthquakes  emphasizes  the  importance  of  investi- 
gations which  may  be  able  to  bring  about  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  damage  of  these  great  disturbances.  The 
science  of  seismology  is  in  its  infancy,  but  enough 
is  known  to  show  that  the  hope  of  the  successful 
prediction  of  earthquakes  is  not  a  chimera.  The  ac- 
curate surveys  of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
in  California  demonstrated  that  the  great  earth- 
quake of  1906  was  due  to  forces  set  up  by  slow  move- 
ments of  the  land  which  probably  had  been  gomg 
on  for  a  hundred  years.  Having  learned  that  such 
slow  movements  precede  many  large  earthquakes, 
monuments  are  now  being  set  up  in  California  to 
enable  scientists  to  discover  future  movements  of 


GOVERNMENT  TAXIDERMIST. 


THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION     213 

the  land  which  will  enable  them  to  predict  the  ap- 
proach of  the  giant  earth  tremors. 

In  its  efforts  to  increase  the  sum  of  human  knowl- 
edge, the  Institution  aids  investigators  by  making 
grants  for  research  and  exploration,  supplying 
books,  apparatus,  laboratory  accommodations,  etc. 
It  advises  the  Government  in  many  matters  of  a  sci- 
entific character,  supports  a  table  at  the  Naples 
Marine  Zoological  Station,  and  cooperates  with  all 
sciencific  bodies  of  national  importance,  such  as  the 
National  Academy  of  Sciences  and  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Sciences.  In 
its  work  of  spreading  knowledge,  the  Institution 
maintains  three  regular  series  of  publications.  One 
of  these  is  its  annual  report,  which  presents  a  review 
of  scientific  progress  during  the  year  it  covers. 
Another  is  the  "Smithsonian  Contributions  to 
Knowledge,"  consisting  of  frequently  issued  works 
in  each  of  which  is  pablished  to  the  world  some  origi- 
nal contribution  to  its  information,  based  on  re- 
search. The  third  series  is  known  as  the  **  Smith- 
sonian Miscellaneous  Collections,"  which  contains 
much  information  of  great  direct  value  to  the  scien- 
tist, and  indirect  value  to  the  public  at  large.  The 
endowment  of  the  Institution  amounts  approximately 
to  $1,000,000,  from  which  an  annual  income  of 
$58,000  a  year  is  received. 

In  addition  to  the  work  of  the  Institution  carried 
forward  with  its  own  ^unds,  it  has  charge  of  activi- 
ties of  the  Government  besides  the  Astrophysical 
Observatory,  which  are  supported  by  congressional 
appropriations.      One    of    these    is    the    National 


214        THE   AMERICAN   GOVERNMENT 

Museum.  No  better  museum  for  scientific  researcli  is 
to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world.  Scientists  from 
everywhere  come  here  to  study  the  various  collec- 
tions. The  Division  of  Economic  Geology  contains 
more  than  half  a  million  different  exhibits,  and  is 
the  world's  foremost  collection  of  its  kind.  One  may 
find  any  sort  of  exhibit,  from  a  huge  meteorite 
weighing  thousands  of  pounds  to  a  few  grains  of 
sand. 

No  collection  in  the  Museum  is  more  interesting 
to  the  visitor  than  the  anthropological  exhibit.  Here 
one  may  trace  human  progress  from  the  stone  age 
down  to  our  own  twentieth  century  civilization.  He 
may  trace  the  development  of  the  arts  and  sciences 
all  through  the  centuries,  from  the  day  when  man 
first  became  the  master  of  fire  and  made  his  first  hol- 
lowed-out  log  boat,  down  to  the  time  when  he  studies 
the  invisible  rays  of  light  and  heat  and  crosses  the 
ocean  on  a  Mauretania.  One  may  see  the  skeletons 
of  extinct  animals  so  large  that  those  of  the  elephant 
seem  small  in  comparison.  He  may  stand  under  the 
skeleton  of  a  huge  whale,  more  than  80  feet  long,  and 
look  through  a  microscope  at  sea  shells  so  small 
that  to  the  naked  eye  they  seem  but  specks  of 
dust. 

The  collection  of  birds  contains  over  180,000  speci- 
mens, nearly  70,000  eggs,  and  many  nests.  Of  the 
18,000  or  more  kinds  of  birds  the  National  Museum 
possesses  a  goodly  share,  f'-om  humming  birds  to 
ostriches,  only  two  families  of  ^iving  birds  being  un- 
represented. Among  eggs,  the  Museum  possesses 
a  perfect  one  of  the  giant  ^pyornis,  an  extinct  bird 


THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION     215 

mucli  larger  than  tlie  ostrich,  and  whose  eggs  are  oc- 
casionally exposed  in  the  sands  of  Madagascar. 

The  collection  of  insects  is  one  of  the  largest  in 
the  world,  and  here  one  may  see  various  forms  from 
all  regions,  as  well  as  insects  with  curions  habits. 
One  of  the  latter  is  the  bombardier  beetle,  which, 
when  attacked,  as  a  means  of  defense  discharges 
with  a  distinct  report  an  offensively  smelling  liquid. 

The  mammal  collection  contains  about  150,000 
specimens,  ranging  from  the  smallest  shrew,  barely 
one-fourth  the  size  of  a  house  mouse,  to  the  largest 
elephant  and  whale.  The  large  skins  are  tanned  and 
kept  in  dark  cases  where  they  will  not  be  injured  by 
the  light,  and  where  they  can  be  easily  examined  by 
persons  interested  in  their  study.  A  few  represent- 
ing the  more  characteristic  kinds  are  mounted.  A 
collection  which  has  excited  much  popular  interest 
is  that  brought  home  by  the  naturalists  of  the  Smith- 
sonian African  Expedition  under  the  direction  of 
Col.  Theodore  Roosevelt.  It  numbers  about  5,000 
mammals,  including  the  giant  eland,  an  antelope  as 
large  as  an  ox,  never  before  brought  to  this  country, 
and  the  square-lipped  rhinoceros,  which  is  now  con- 
fined to  regions  not  easily  visited  by  sportsmen,  as 
well  as  several  thousand  specimens  of  birds,  reptiles, 
fishes,  mollusks,  etc. 

The  National  Museum  contains  a  collection  of  ex- 
hibits which  enables  the  visitor  to  read  the  story  of 
American  history  and  American  progress  at  a 
glance.  Here  he  may  see  the  relics  of  George  Wash- 
ington, among  them  his  army  coat  and  his  camp 
kit.    In  another  case  one  beholds  the  relics  of  Grant, 


2i6        THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

in  another  those  of  Lincoln,  and  so  on  all  the  way 
down  through  the  line  of  American  men  of  fame. 
In  other  rooms  he  may  behold  the  whole  story  of 
American  railroad  transportation,  from  the  old  John 
Bull  engine  do^vn  to  the  present  day.  Here  is  the 
first  clumsy  typewriter  ever  invented,  and  there  one 
of  the  latest  models  of  the  combined  writing  and 
adding  machine.  A  National  Gallery  of  Art  has 
also  been  established  and  large  collections  are  being 
gathered. 

An  interesting  work  of  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion, carried  on  under  Government  appropriations, 
is  the  exchange  of  publications  authorized  by  Con- 
gress for  those  of  other  Governments.  The  pro- 
ceeds of  this  exchange  constitute  an  important  addi- 
tion to  the  Library  of  Congress.  The  Institution 
also  acts  as  intermediary  for  an  exchange  of  pub- 
lications between  the  learned  bodies  and  literary  and 
scientific  societies  of  the  United  States  and  those  of 
other  countries.  Even  individuals  are  allowed  to 
share  in  its  benefits.  Since  its  establishment  the  In- 
stitution has  handled  more  than  3,000,000  packages. 

The  work  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology 
is  also  directed  by  the  Smithsonian.  This  bureau 
has  been  engaged  in  preserving  for  the  future  the 
languages,  songs,  customs,  and  traditions  of  the  In- 
dians. It  has  collected  data  concerning  60  linguistic 
stocks  of  Indians  and  upward  of  300  tribes.  It  has 
done  much  in  the  exploration  and  preservation  of 
American  antiquities  and  their  protection  from  van- 
dalism. The  National  Zoological  Park,  at  Washing- 
ton, with  an  area  of  167  acres  and  a  collection  of 


THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION     217 

nearly  1,500  animals,  is  maintained  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  Smithsonian. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  works  in  which  the 
Smithsonian  is  engaged,  as  the  agent  of  the  Govern- 
ment, is  that  of  acting  as  the  regional  bureau  of  the 
International  Catalogue  of  Scientific  Literature. 
This  great  catalogue  began  with  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century,  and  each  year  there  are  published 
17  volumes,  in  which  are  catalogued  every  contri- 
bution to  scientific  knowledge  made  in  every  country 
of  the  world.  Over  10,000  pages  are  annually  re- 
quired to  list  these  contributions  according  to  au- 
thors and  subjects.  To  have  one  consolidated  in- 
dex of  all  the  doings  of  mankind  in  the  field  of  sci- 
ence is  to  possess  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  all  aids 
to  human  endeavor.  The  International  Catalogue 
aims  not  only  to  cite  the  title  and  the  author  of  every 
scientific  book  and  paper  published  in  the  entire 
world,  but  briefly  to  supply  an  analytical  digest  of 
the  subject-matter  of  each.  This  is  accomplished 
in  a  most  ingenious  way.  Letters  are  made  to  rep- 
resent heads  and  figures  subheads,  and  by  these  fig- 
ures the  users  of  the  index  can  determine  at  once 
what  subjects  are  treated  in  each  contribution  cited. 
This  great  publication,  growing  at  a  rate  that  will 
make  1,700  volumes  by  the  end  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, is  not  a  money-making  scheme.  In  fact,  there 
is  no  provision  whatever  for  the  use  of  any  surplus 
that  might  accrue  from  its  publication  and  sale.  It 
is  purely  a  permanent  establishment  of  world  coop- 
eration, with  no  other  aim  than  to  support  itself  and 
to  become  invaluable  to  the  human  race.     It  has 


218       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

commanded  the  active  cooperation  of  nearly  every 
civilized  Government.  Each  nation  prepares  the  in- 
dex of  its  current  scientific  literature  for  the  year. 
The  work  of  the  United  States  is  done  at  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution.  After  these  national  indexes  are 
prepared  they  are  sent  to  London,  where  the  central 
bureau  is  located,  and  there  they  are  each  year  con- 
solidated into  the  one  huge  index  of  17  volumes.  In 
the  regional  bureau  of  the  United  States  every  scien- 
tific publication  in  the  country  is  gone  through  as 
with  a  fine-tooth  comb  for  scientific  matters.  Then 
recourse  is  had  to  every  published  index,  to  make 
sure  that  nothing  has  been  overlooked.  Every  stone 
of  literature  that  may  cover  some  scientific  truth  is 
turned  in  the  patient  search  for  new  matter. 

The  bureau  at  the  Smithsonian  furnishes  between 
25,000  and  30,000  references  a  year,  which  cover  ap- 
proximately one-eighth  of  the  scientific  work  of  the 
world.  Millions  of  dollars  are  being  spent  every 
year  in  scientific  investigation  and  many  of  the  fore- 
most men  of  the  day  are  devoting  their  entire  time 
to  such  work.  It  has  remained  for  this  index  to 
make  all  of  this  endeavor  available  to  scientific  men 
and  the  world  at  large.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
this  great  undertaking  is  the  result  of  a  suggestion 
made  in  1855  by  Professor  Joseph  Henry,  the  first 
secretary  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 


XVII. 
THE  PANAMA  CANAL. 

No  other  engineering  undertaking  in  the  entire 
history  of  the  world  compares  with  that  of  digging 
the  Panama  Canal.  It  required  100,000  men  20 
years  to  build  the  pyramid  of  Cheops ;  a  hole  deep 
enough  to  bury  12  such  pyramids  is  made  in  a  year 
at  Panama.  It  required  nearly  a  score  of  years  to 
build  the  Suez  Canal;  as  much  dirt  is  excavated  at 
Panama  in  12  months.  The  Manchester  Ship  Canal 
was  a  number  of  years  in  building;  that  task  is 
duplicated  in  15  months  at  Panama. 

It  took  the  French  as  many  years  to  discover 
that  they  could  not  build  a  15-foot  canal  as  it  will 
take  the  United  States  to  make  it  a  finished  water- 
way 40  feet  deep ;  and  it  cost  the  French  as  much  to 
make  a  failure  of  their  project  as  it  will  cost  the 
United  States  to  make  a  success  of  its  undertaking. 

Chief  Engineer  George  W.  Goethals  has  made 
himself  the  greatest  digger  in  history.  In  four  years 
he  excavated  enough  material  to  make  a  monument 
of  dirt  with  a  base  larger  than  the  height  of  the 
Washington  Monument  and  towering  far  into  the 
regions  of  perpetual  snow.  This  material  would  fill 
a  modern  dirt  train  long  enough  to  girdle  the  globe 

219 


220       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

two-and-a-half  times.  When  Uncle  Sam  took  hold 
of  the  work  of  building  the  canal  it  was  figured  that 
it  would  require  nine  years  to  excavate  105,000,000 
yards  of  dirt ;  at  the  rate  the  work  is  now  progress- 
ing he  will  have  moved  165,000,000  yards  in  five 
years.  The  cost  of  excavating  a  yard  of  dirt  in  Cu- 
lebra  Cut  has  been  reduced  from  11.5  cents  to  8.88 
cents.  The  distance  the  excavated  material  is  hauled 
increased  from  8  to  12  miles  in  two  years,  but  the 
cost  of  hauling  it  was  reduced  from  18.54  cents  a 
yard  to  15.22  cents. 

Measured  in  the  results  which  will  follow  the  com- 
pletion of  the  undertaking,  the  work  at  Panama 
stands  in  a  class  by  itself.  Cities  which  are  to-day 
mere  way  stations  on  the  international  routes  of 
trade  will  grow  into  rich  world  centers.  The  East 
will  be  brought  8,000  miles  closer  to  the  West. 
Eighty  million  tons  of  freight  a  year  may  be  carried 
through  the  canal  without  overtaxing  its  facilities. 

The  most  extensive  part  of  the  work  of  construct- 
ing the  Panama  Canal  is  that  of  actually  digging  the 
big  ditch.  The  material  which  must  come  out  of  it 
represents  an  amount  equivalent  to  that  which  would 
be  required  to  make  a  canal  through  level  ground 
from  Washington  to  New  York  large  enough  to  float 
a  Lusitania.  The  two  ends  of  the  big  waterway  are 
simply  sea-level  ditches  from  deep  water  in  the  At- 
lantic and  the  Pacific,  a  distance  of  7  miles  to  Gatun 
on  the  Atlantic  side  and  8  miles  to  Miraflores  on  the 
Pacific  side. 

Think  of  a  single  landslide,  with  a  superficial  area 
of  47  acres,  slipping  foot  by  foot  into  the  canal !  Yet 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  221 

the  canal  diggers,  when  they  encounter  such  an  un- 
expected difficulty,  simply  redouble  their  efforts  and 
declare  they  will  not  permit  it  to  delay  the  opening 
of  the  canal  one  single  hour!  Think  of  loading  a 
20-car  dirt  train  with  800  tons  of  material  with  less 
than  a  hundred  shovelfuls  of  dirt !  Think  of  explod- 
ing a  single  blast  of  20  tons  of  dynamite  and  tearing 
loose  70,000  yards  of  earth  and  stone!  These  are 
some  of  the  things  which  show  how  gigantic  is  the 
undertaking. 

The  middle  section  of  the  canal,  34  miles  long,  has 
a  water  level  85  feet  higher  than  the  sections  from 
Gatun  and  Miraflores  to  the  sea.  The  canal  diggere 
are  damming  up  the  Chagres  River  at  Gatun  so  as  to 
make  a  great  lake,  cutting  a  great  ditch  through  the 
Culebra  Mountain  so  as  to  permit  the  water  of  this 
lake  to  back  up  to  a  depth  of  40  feet  through  the 
mountain.  This  requires  a  dam  at  Gatun  which  will 
make  the  lake  85  feet  deep  at  that  point.  This  dam 
is  approximately  a  mile  and  a  half  long,  a  half  mile 
wide  at  the  bottom,  400  feet  wide  at  the  water  line, 
and  a  hundred  feet  wide  at  the  top.  Its  total  height 
will  be  115  feet,  or  30  feet  higher  than  the  surface  of 
the  water  in  the  lake  it  creates.  It  covers  288  acres 
of  land. 

Its  slope  is  so  gradual  as  hardly  to  be  noticed  in 
the  landscape.  Take  a  yardstick  and  raise  one  end 
3  inches  higher  than  the  other,  and  the  resulting 
slope  will  be  considerably  steeper  than  the  average 
slope  of  the  Gatun  Dam,  When  completed  the  dam 
will  contain  some  20,000,000  yards  of  material,  which 
is  being  put  into  place  at  the  rate  of  more  than  5,000,- 


222       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

000  yards  a  year.  Construction  was  begun  by  build- 
ing two  parallel  lines  of  stone  retaining  walls  across 
the  valley,  1,200  feet  apart.  Between  these  two  walls 
millions  of  cubic  yards  of  sand  and  clay  are  being 
pumped  into  large  ponds  maintained  at  the  crest  of 
the  dam.  The  water  deposits  its  load  of  solid  mat- 
ter and  flows  off  to  be  pumped  up  again  with  an- 
other load.  The  natural  cement  held  in  suspension 
by  the  dredged  water  tightens  up  every  tiny  space  as 
a  brick  mason  might  close  a  hole  in  the  wall. 

One  of  the  problems  which  the  engineers  have  had 
to  encounter  in  building  the  Gatun  Bam  is  that  of 
disposing  of  the  vast  amount  of  surplus  water  which 
comes  down  the  Chagres.  This  is  a  moody  stream, 
sometimes  quiet  and  shallow  and  at  other  times  a 
torrential  river  with  a  sustained  flow  of  137,000  cubic 
feet  of  water  a  second.  How  to  build  a  spillway  that 
will  pass  such  an  enormous  amount  of  water  from 
the  lake  surface  to  the  sea  level,  85  feet  below,  has 
been  a  difficult  problem  to  solve.  The  lake  has  been 
made  so  big,  covering  164  square  miles  of  superficial 
surface,  that  the  Chagres  on  its  greatest  rampage 
might  flow  into  it  for  more  than  five  hours  and  yet 
raise  its  level  only  1  foot;  the  water  level  may  be 
raised  7  feet  without  doing  damage. 

The  Chagres  now  crosses  the  line  of  the  canal  23 
times  on  its  23-mile  journey  from  Gamboa,  where  it 
first  strikes  the  big  waterway,  to  Gatun.  When  the 
Gatun  Dam  is  completed  the  river  will  lose  itself  in 
the  waters  of  the  lake  at  Gamboa.  The  spillway 
over  which  the  surplus  water  of  the  Gatun  Lake  will 
flow  consists  of  a  huge  crescent-shaped  dam  of  con- 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  223 

Crete  surmounted  by  13  large  piers  and  2  big  abut- 
ments, which  divide  the  dam  into  14  openings,  each 
of  which  will  be  opened  and  closed  by  giant  gates. 

Almost  every  method  of  excavating  known  to  the 
engineering  world  is  brought  into  use  in  digging  the 
Panama  Canal.  At  the  entrance  on  each  side  of  the 
Isthmus  giant  seagoing  suction  dredges  collect  the 
material  and  carry  it  out  to  sea.  On  each  side  of 
one  of  these  dredges  are  huge  20-inch  suckers,  oper- 
ated by  centrifugal  pumps,  which  work  with  such  tre- 
mendous suction  power  that  they  pick  up  such  things 
as  pieces  of  anchor  chains. 

In  the  Culebra  Cut  the  steam  shovel  is  king,  and 
dynamite  by  the  carload  is  used.  More  than  a  mil- 
lion pounds  of  explosives  are  fired  off  every  month 
in  the  canal  works,  the  major  portion  of  which  is 
used  at  Culebra.  In  some  of  the  big  blasts  25  or 
more  wells  are  dug  by  machines  operated  by  the 
largest  air-compressor  plant  in  the  world,  and  into 
each  of  these  holes  the  major  portion  of  a  ton  of 
dynamite  is  placed,  and  then  the  whole  thing  is 
touched  off  by  pressing  an  electric  button. 

In  another  place  hydraulic  excavation  is  resorted 
to.  Here  one  sees  a  great  pumping  station  capable 
of  forcing  30,000  gallons  of  water  a  minute  through 
a  pipe  which  tapers  from  40  to  16  inches  in  diameter. 
To  this  are  attached  four  or  five  flexible  water  noz- 
zles through  which  are  forced  streams  of  water  from 
4  to  6  inches  in  diameter,  with  a  pressure  of  130 
pounds  to  the  square  inch.  These  streams  of  water 
literally  eat  the  dirt  away. 

The  canal  would  be  of  no  use  were  there  not  a 


224       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

method  of  getting  ships  from  the  sea  level  to  the  lake 
level,  85  feet  above,  and  vice  versa.  To  accomplish 
this  purpose  giant  marine  stairways  are  being  built. 
These  are  constructed  like  a  double-track  railway,  so 
that  one  ship  may  be  going  up  while  another  is  going 
down.  There  are  three  steps  in  the  stairway  at 
Gatun  on  the  Atlantic  side.  On  the  Pacific  side 
there  is  one  step  at  Pedro  Miguel  and  two  at  Mira- 
flores.  At  each  step  a  ship  is  lifted  up  or  down 
slightly  more  than  28  feet.  The  two  side-by-side 
locks,  including  the  outside  walls,  are  approximately 
380  feet  wide.  They  are  separated  by  an  inside  wall 
or  partition,  which  is  60  feet  thick.  Running  length- 
wise through  the  outside  walls  and  the  middle  parti- 
tion are  great  culverts,  or  concrete  pipe  lines,  which 
are  almost  large  enough  to  serve  as  tunnels  for  a 
double-track  railroad.  Connecting  with  these  three 
huge  tunnels  are  a  series  of  smaller  ones,  8  feet  in 
diameter,  which  run  across  the  locks  under  their 
floors.  These  open  through  the  floors  of  the  locks 
in  a  series  of  holes,  each  2  feet  in  diameter. 

The  water  is  first  admitted  into  the  big  tunnels, 
and  passes  from  them  into  smaller  ones  beneath  the 
floors  of  the  locks,  and  from  them  into  the  lock  it- 
self. When  a  ship  seeks  to  pass  out  of  Gatun  Lake 
to  the  sea  level,  the  upper  gates  are  opened  and 
electric  towing  locomotives  pull  it  into  the  first  lock. 
Then  the  gates  are  closed  behind  it,  and  the  valves 
in  the  tunnel  are  so  arranged  that  the  water  passes 
out  of  the  upper  lock,  down  through  the  holes  in  the 
floor,  then  through  the  small  tunnels,  then  through 
the  large  ones,  and  then  into  the  next  lock  below.  As 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  225 

soon  as  the  water  in  this  lock  rises  to  the  level  of  the 
water  in  the  lock  above,  the  gate  between  them  is 
opened  and  the  ship  is  towed  into  the  lower  lock. 
This  operation  is  repeated  until  the  vessel  finds  it- 
self 85  feet  lower  than  it  was  when  the  process  of 
lockage  began. 

The  lock  machinery  is  operated  by  electricity  gen- 
erated at  Gatun  Dam.  The  world's  most  elaborate 
system  of  protecting  the  locks  from  injury  has  been 
resorted  to.  When  a  ship  approaches  the  upper 
lock,  it  encounters  a  huge  steel  chain,  each  end  fas- 
tened to  a  giant  hydraulic  jack.  After  the  vessel  is 
stopped,  it  will  be  met  by  four  large  towing  locomo- 
tives on  narrow-gauge  racktracks.  Two  of  these 
will  hitch  to  its  bow  and  two  to  its  stern,  the  two  in 
front  pulling  it  forward  and  the  two  behind  prevent- 
ing it  from  moving  too  rapidly.  At  every  vital  point 
in  the  lock  system  there  will  be  a  duplicate  set  of 
gates,  their  weight  varying  from  300  to  600  tons. 
Each  gate  is  composed  of  two  leaves,  hinged  to  the 
side  walls  of  the  lock  like  an  ordinary  pair  of  one- 
way double  doors,  except  that  they  do  not  shut 
straight  across  the  stream,  but  come  together  like  a 
flattened  V,  with  the  apex  pointing  upstream.  They 
will  be  opened  and  closed  by  a  huge  arm  weigh- 
ing 130,000  pounds  and  having  a  diameter  of  16 
inches. 

In  addition  to  all  the  other  precautions  to  insure 
the  safety  of  the  locks,  there  is  an  emergency  dam 
provided.  It  consists  of  a  large  cantilever  bridge 
mounted  on  a  pivot  base  on  the  side  wall  of  the  upper 
end  of  the  uppermost  lock.    In  case  everything  went 


226       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

wrong  and  the  water  in  the  lake  should  begin  to  rush 
out  through  the  locks  at  the  destructive  speed  of  28 
feet  a  second,  this  bridge  would  be  turned  across  the 
lock,  and  a  set  of  girders,  made  of  the  hardest  nickel 
steel,  would  be  let  down,  one  end  fast  to  the  bridge, 
and  the  other  engaging  an  offset  in  the  lock  floor. 
Each  of  these  girders  would  make  a  sort  of  inclined 
railway,  on  which  huge  sheets  of  steel,  mounted  on 
roller  bearings,  would  be  let  down  to  check  the  cur- 
rent. 

The  work  of  building  the  six  locks  required  for  the 
canal  is  proceeding  with  unexampled  dispatch.  It 
requires  over  2,000,000  barrels  of  cement,  and  as 
many  cubic  yards  of  stone  and  sand,  to  build  the 
locks  at  each  end  of  the  canal.  The  concrete  hand- 
ling plants  are  the  largest  of  their  kinds  in  the  world. 
At  Gatun  clamshell  buckets,  carried  on  big  cable- 
ways  and  operated  entirely  by  machinery,  unload 
the  rock  and  sand  from  the  barges.  It  is  then  loaded 
on  automatic  electric  cars  in  exact  portions,  and  is 
carried  to  the  big  concrete  mixers  which  handle 
more  than  two  2-horse  loads  at  a  time.  The  cars 
on  the  double-tracked  circular  electric  railway  need 
no  motormen.  The  current  is  so  regulated  that  their 
speed  is  kept  constant  at  about  3  miles  an  hour.  Boys 
cut  off  the  switch  of  each  car  as  it  reaches  its  stop- 
ping place.  "When  the  concrete  is  mixed  it  is 
dumped  into  big  buckets  mounted  on  flat  cars  drawn 
by  small  electric  locomotives.  These  haul  two  buck- 
ets to  a  point  under  a  big  cableway,  by  which  they 
are  carried  to  the  place  where  the  material  is  to  be 
dumped. 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  227 

One  of  the  remarkable  circumstances  connected 
with  the  construction  of  the  canal  is  the  great  in- 
crease in  working  efficiency  that  has  taken  place.  A 
ton  of  dynamite  is  now  made  to  do  twice  as  much 
work  as  it  did  two  years  ago.  Expert  attention 
given  to  the  use  of  the  lubricating  oil  alone  has  re- 
sulted in  the  saving  of  $6,000  a  year.  By  shaking 
the  cement  out  of  the  empty  bags  and  returning 
them  to  the  manufacturers,  $50,000  a  month  is  saved. 
In  a  hundred  ways  efficiency  has  been  developed 
with  the  result  that  the  canal  army  has  a  record  of 
an  average  annual  excavation  of  32,000,000  cubic 
yards,  as  compared  with  a  predicted  average  of  less 
than  12,000,000  yards. 

The  United  States  owns,  in  connection  with  the 
work  of  building  the  canal,  the  Panama  Railroad, 
which  is  47  miles  long  and  has  net  earnings,  includ- 
ing the  steamshijD  line  it  operates,  of  nearly  $2,000- 
000  a  year.  The  French  bought  the  road  for  $18,- 
000,000  and  sold  it  to  the  United  States  for  $7,000,- 
000.  The  road  has  been  relocated  and  has  a  larger 
number  of  embankments  in  proportion  to  its  length 
than  any  other  railway  in  the  world,  one  of  them 
being  82  feet  high,  more  than  a  mile  long,  and  con- 
taining nearly  3,000,000  yards  of  dirt  and  rock.  This 
railroad  carries  nearly  2,500,000  passengers  a  year. 

Nine  thousand  Americans  live  on  the  Canal  Zone, 
of  whom  more  than  half  are  in  the  actual  employ  of 
the  Canal  Commission  or  the  Panama  Railroad. 
They  command  wages  50  per  cent  higher  than  those 
obtained  in  the  United  States;  their  clothes  cost 
much  less;  their  food  is  bought  at  cost;  they  get 


228       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

houses  rent  free,  free  light,  free  medical  service,  free 
transportation  to  free  schools  for  their  children. 

The  bulk  of  the  manual  labor  on  the  canal  is  per- 
formed by  West  Indian  negroes  who  are  paid  90 
cents  a  day.  These  negroes  are  given  the  privilege 
of  free  lodging  and  are  furnished  three  square  meals 
a  day  for  10  cents  each.  Often  one  sees  one  of  these 
negroes  with  nothing  in  either  hand  and  carrying  an 
umbrella  or  a  letter  on  his  head.  Once  a  new  gang 
of  them  were  set  to  the  work  of  hauling  away  dirt 
with  a  wheelbarrow.  Three  of  them  filled  up  the 
wheelbarrow,  after  which  one  stooped  down  and  the 
other  two  placed  it  upon  his  head  to  be  borne 
away. 

Arrangements  are  now  being  made  for  the  fortifi- 
cation of  the  canal.  This  will  consist  of  large  forts 
at  each  end  of  the  canal,  in  each  of  which  will  be 
placed  four  14-inch  rifles,  six  6-inch  guns,  and  twelve 
12-inch  mortars.  Twelve  companies  of  Coast  Artil- 
lery, four  regiments  of  Infantry,  one  battalion  of 
Field  Artillery,  and  a  squadron  of  Cavalry  will  be 
stationed  here  in  time  of  peace.  The  fortifications 
are  expected  to  cost  $12,000,000. 

Chief  Engineer  George  W.  Goethals  is  already 
making  arrangements  for  the  operation  of  the  caiial. 
It  is  thought  that  the  tolls  will  be  fixed  at  a  dollar 
a  ton,  which  will  be  cheaper  than  going  through  the 
Suez  Canal,  around  Cape  Horn,  or  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.  The  cream  of  the  present  force  will  be  re- 
tained for  the  operation  of  the  canal.  It  is  intended 
to  utilize  the  present  laundry  facilities,  baking  estab- 
lishments, coaling  plants,  machine  shops,  and  every- 


THE  PANAMA  CANAL  229 

thing  else  now  in  operation  wliich  will  promote  traffic 
through  the  canal  after  it  is  built. 

One  may  gather  some  idea  of  the  cost  and  ot  the 
magnitude  of  the  operations  at  Panamp.  from  the 
statement  that  it  requires  over  200  tons  of  silver  and 
9  tons  of  gold  to  pay  off  the  canal  force.  The  em- 
ployees are  paid  monthly,  and  payments  are  made 
wholly  in  gold  and  silver. 

The  Canal  Zone  affords  the  finest  example  of  pre- 
ventive medicine  and  public  sanitation  in  the  world. 
The  death  rate  has  been  cut  more  than  in  half  since 
the  beginning  of  the  American  occupation.  Some- 
thing of  the  excellence  of  the  work  of  sanitation  may 
be  inferred  from  the  statement  that  if  the  United 
States  spent  as  much  for  sanitary  purposes  in  pro- 
portion to  population  as  is  spent  in  the  Canal  Zone 
and  in  the  cities  of  Panama  and  Colon,  it  would 
spend  $1,200,000,000  a  year  for  such  purposes.  If 
we  spent  as  much  at  home  in  proportion  to  area  as 
we  spend  at  Panama,  the  annual  outlay  would  ap- 
proximate  $12,000,000,000. 


xvin. 

THE   INTERSTATE   COMMERCE    COMMIS- 
SION. 

Regulating  as  it  does  tlie  affairs  of  common  car- 
rier corporations  having  an  annnal  income  of  ap- 
proximately $4,000,000,000,  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  inde- 
pendent branches  of  the  Government  service.  It  has 
governmental  supervision  over  all  of  the  common 
carriers  of  the  United  States  which  do  an  interstate- 
commerce  business,  and  which  are  included  in  the 
definition  of  common  carriers  written  in  the  inter- 
state-commerce law.  This  not  only  includes  the  rail- 
roads doing  an  interstate  business,  but  also  such 
steamboat  lines  as  operate  in  interstate  commerce 
in  connection  with  railroads,  under  common  control, 
management,  or  arrangement.  It  also  includes  the 
interstate  operations  of  the  express  companies, 
sleeping-car  companies,  telegraph,  cable  and  tele- 
phone companies,  wireless  telegraph  companies,  and 
pipe  lines  carrying  other  commodities  than  water 
and  gas.  The  railway  lines  which  it  regulates  have  an 
aggregate  mileage  of  more  than  250,000  miles.  They 
carry  annually  some  900,000,000  passengers  and 
more  than  1,500,000,000  tons  of  freight.  The  dis- 
tance which  these  passengers  are  carried  is  equiva- 

231 


232       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

lent  approximately  to  30,000,000,000  miles  for  one 
passenger,  and  the  freight  transportation  is  equiva- 
lent to  the  task  of  carrying  1  ton  of  freight  more 
than  200,000,000,000  miles.  The  average  ton  of 
freight  is  moved  1  mile  for  less  than  1  cent. 

Much  of  the  time  of  the  Commission  is  taken  up 
in  the  interpretation  of  interstate-commerce  laws 
for  the  benefit  of  shippers  and  carriers.  A  court 
will  not  answer  a  hypothetical  question  or  decide  an 
imaginary  case,  but  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission will  turn  aside  from  the  red  tape  of  legal 
procedure  and  give  all  parties  interested  the  best  in- 
formation it  possesses  with  reference  to  matters 
over  which  it  has  jurisdiction.  If  a  question  arises 
which  involves  matters  of  common  interest  or  fre- 
quent rulings,  general  rules  are  published  informally 
and  the  opinions  of  the  Commission  are  printed  and 
placed  in  the  hands  of  all  who  need  them.  By  this 
means  a  comprehensive  code  of  rules  is  in  process  of 
development,  the  observance  of  which  will  operate  to 
promote  just  and  impartial  conduct  on  the  part  of 
both  shippers  and  carriers. 

One  of  the  principal  functions  of  the  Commission 
is  to  settle  differences  between  the  common  carriers 
and  their  patrons.  In  doing  this,  it  receives  two 
kinds  of  complaints — formal  and  informal.  Infor- 
mal complaints  are  largely  in  the  majority.  About 
4,000  complaints  oi  this  nature  are  filed  annually. 
These  complaints  may  be  filed  by  any  citizen  having 
a  grievance  against  a  common  carrier.  They  may 
reach  the  Commission  simply  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
stating  the  grievance.    If  the  complaint  is  found  to 


THE   INTERSTATE   COMMISSION      233 

be  justified,  after  an  informal  investigation,  tlie  of- 
fending carrier  receives  a  recommendation  from  the 
Commission  that  it  remove  the  ground  of  complaint. 
These  complaints  range  all  the  way  from  an  alleged 
overcharge  for  a  railroad  ticket  to  an  unsatisfactory 
method  of  handling  thousands  of  tons  of  coal.  They 
involve  no  expense  to  the  persons  filing  them,  and 
usually  result  in  a  satisfactory  adjustment  of  the 
matters  at  issue. 

Formal  complaints  cover  every  sort  of  subject 
from  a  claim  for  reparation  involving  a  few  dollars 
to  a  complaint  against  the  entire  tariff  of  a  railroad, 
involving  millions,  or  the  practices  and  regulations 
of  a  large  number  of  carriers.  Sometimes  indi- 
viduals and  corporations  make  these  complaints.  At 
other  times  cities  and  towns  make  them. 

During  an  average  year  approximately  800  formal 
complaints  are  filed  with  the  Commission,  and  a  like 
number  are  disposed  of.  Every  one  of  these  com- 
plaints is  made  public  at  the  time  it  is  filed.  The 
chief  clerk  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
has  a  table  in  his  office,  and  as  the  complaints  come 
in  they  are  placed  there  for  inspection  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  newspapers  all  over  the  country  who 
visit  the  offices  of  the  Commission  to  daily  obtain  in- 
formation. After  the  complaints  have  thus  been 
made  public,  and  notice  served  on  interested  parties, 
the  Commission  sets  a  date  for  hearing  both  sides  of 
the  questions  involved.  During  a  recent  year  over 
700  hearings  and  investigations  were  made.  A  large 
number  of  these  were  held  in  Washington,  though 
the  Commission  or  certain  of  its  members  go  to  vari- 


234       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

ous  parts  of  the  country  to  hold  h  3arings  when  it  is 
not  convenient  for  the  interested  parties  and  their 
witnesses  to  come  to  Washington.  During  a  single 
year  as  many  as  70,000  pages  of  testimony  are  taken, 
exclusive  of  voluminous  exhibits.  If  the  pressure  of 
business  requires  it,  the  duty  of  holding  hearings 
may  be  performed  by  special  examiners  designated 
by  the  Commission.  After  these  hearings  have  been 
held  and  the  testimony  is  printed,  the  commissioners 
study  it  and  then  announce  their  decision.  Since 
the  establishment  of  the  Commerce  Court,  the  deci- 
sion of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  may  be 
appealed  from  to  that  court  by  either  party  to  the 
controversy,  although  in  many  cases  the  action  of 
the  Commission  is  taken  as  final. 

Every  common  carrier  subject  to  the  act  is  re- 
quired to  file  every  interstate  freight  and  passenger 
rate  it  makes  with  the  Interstate  Comm-crce  Commis- 
sion. During  an  average  year  the  tariff  publications 
so  filed  may  amount  to  more  than  175,000.  The  law 
provides  that  no  tariff  shall  become  effective  until 
30  days  after  notice  is  given,  except  with  the  permis- 
sion of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission.  Some- 
times it  is  desirable  that  a  certain  rate  may  be  estab- 
lished upon  short  notice,  and  during  an  average  year 
about  4,000  such  applications  are  acted  upon  by  the 
Commission. 

Perhaps  the  most  far-reaching  and  fundamentally 
important  power  conferred  on  the  Commission  is  the 
authority  to  suspend  proposed  advances  in  rates 
pending  investigation  of  their  reasonableness.  The 
Commission  must  constantly  be  on  guard  to  see  that 


THE  INTERSTATE   COMMISSION      235 

rate  changes  of  contemplated  orders  do  not  ad- 
versely affect  contests  in  great  cases.  In  order 
more  readily  to  determine  all  rate  matters,  the  Com- 
mission is  trying  to  secure  a  standard  or  uniform 
classification  of  all  freight.  Many  thousands  of  arti- 
cles must  be  described  in  order  that  a  complete  sys- 
tem of  uniform  classification  may  be  put  into  use. 

The  Commission  is  required  by  law  to  report  to 
the  Attorney  General  all  cases  that  come  to  its  no- 
tice of  violations  of  the  criminal  sections  of  the  inter- 
state-commerce laws.  During  an  average  year  there 
are  about  50  such  prosecutions,  in  four-fifths  of 
which  pleas  of  guilty  are  entered.  The  penalties 
assessed  range  from  $100  to  $120,000,  and  the  aggre- 
gate amounts  to  more  than  $200,000  a  year.  In  the 
case  of  the  Hocking  Valley  Eailroad  and  the  Sunday 
Creek  Coal  Company  it  was  found  that  the  railroad 
extended  credit  to  the  coal  company  to  an  unprece- 
dented extent,  more  than  $2,000,000  of  freight  bills 
being  left  unpaid.  The  Government  indicted  both 
the  shipper  and  the  carrier  on  the  theory  that  such 
an  extension  of  credit  was  in  itself  a  departure  from 
the  published  tariff,  and  also  that,  when  given  to 
some  shippers  and  not  to  others,  it  is  a  discrimina- 
tion. 

Another  duty  of  the  Commission  is  that  of  super- 
vising the  accounts  of  the  railroads  and  other  com- 
mon carriers  of  the  country,  and  of  gathering  statis- 
tics relative  to  their  operation.  Realizing  that  un- 
less a  uniform  system  of  accounting  be  adopted,  it 
would  be  impossible  for  the  Commission  to  do  its 
work  efficiently.  Congress  clothed  it  with  authority 


236       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

to  require  the  institution  of  a  uniform  system  of  ac- 
counting. All  accounts  of  every  common  carrier 
subject  to  the  act  must  be  kept  according  to  classifi- 
cations prescribed  by  the  Commission,  and  it  is  a 
punishable  offense  for  any  carrier  to  keep  any  other 
record  whatever  than  those  prescribed  or  approved 
by  the  Commission.  This  uniform,  system  of  account- 
ing requires  common  carriers  to  enter  all  records  of 
their  operation  in  such  a  way  that  the  Commission 
may  Imow  all  about  every  dollar  they  receive,  where 
it  comes  from,  and  where  it  goes. 

This  provision  is  intended  to  prevent  such  unfair 
and  unlawful  practices  as  charging  up  to  operating 
expenses  money  used  in  making  a  common  carrier's 
property  more  valuable.  Every  common  carrier  sub- 
ject to  the  act  must  file  a  monthly  statement  of  all  its 
operations,  and  a  final  annual  statement,  which  must 
agree  entirely  with  the  sum  of  the  monthly  state- 
ments for  the  year.  In  its  investigations  of  the  ex- 
press companies  of  the  country  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  has  produced  some  interesting 
facts  concerning  their  operations.  The  figures  show 
that  more  than  70,000,000  pieces  of  express  matter 
were  handled  in  3  months,  that  the  average  weight 
per  piece  was  slightly  less  than  33  pounds,  and  that 
the  average  revenue  per  pound  was  1.54  cents. 

Among  the  more  important  duties  of  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  is  that  of  fixing  rates. 
This  is  a  most  difficult  problem,  and  one  on  which  -d 
vast  deal  of  conflicting  evidence  is  produced  in  every 
case.  The  railroads  themselves  often  make  very 
contradictory  statements  concerning   this  question. 


THE  INTERSTATE   COMMISSION      237 

In  a  recent  State  controversy  the  railroads  affected 
declared  that  it  would  cost  $100,000  a  mile  to  repro- 
duce their  property.  Only  a  few  months  before  they 
had  sworn  to  the  tax  collector  that  these  properties 
could  be  reproduced  for  $25,000  a  mile. 

The  law  requires  that  the  railroads  shall  not 
charge  an  "unreasonable  rate,"  and  what  would  be 
a  reasonable  schedule  of  rates  if  the  road  cost 
$25,000  a  mile  might  be  an  unremunerative  schedule 
to  the  railroad  company  if  it  cost  $100,000  a  mile. 
It  is  believed  by  many  that  nothing  but  an  actual 
physical  valuation  of  railroad  property  can  furnish 
a  satisfactoiy  basis  for  declaring  what  a  reasonable 
rate  is,  and,  until  such  a  valuation  is  possible,  the 
next  best  thing  is  to  maintain  a  current  compilation 
of  all  significant  facts  bearing  upon  the  construction 
of  railroads,  and  upon  their  operating,  financial,  and 
other  relations.  This  work  is  being  done  by  the  Divi- 
sion of  Statistics  of  the  Commission.  The  Commis- 
sion also  gathers  independent  information  concern- 
ing cases  in  which  witnesses  for  the  plaintiff  and  the 
defendant  have  testified,  so  as  to  be  able  to  deter- 
mine for  itself  the  truth  of  the  testimony. 

The  Commission  requires  all  railroads  to  give  ade- 
quate reports  of  accidents,  and  has  power  to  investi- 
gate upon  its  own  initiative  all  collisions,  derail- 
ments, or  other  accidents.  During  a  recent  year 
there  were  450  passengers  killed  and  15,000  injured. 
During  the  same  year  there  were  upward  of  3,000 
employees  killed  and  nearly  70,000  injured.  Con- 
gress has  gradually  been  forcing  the  railroads  to 
adopt  safety  appliances  which  tend  to  reduce  the 


238       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

dangers  of  railway  operation.  In  1893,  77  out  of 
each  thousand  men  engaged  in  coupling  and  uncoup- 
ling cars,  in  the  employ  of  the  railroads  of  the  coun- 
try, were  injured,  as  compared  with  16  fifteen  years 
later.  The  railroads  long  opposed  the  proposition 
that  they  should  be  required  to  equip  their  trains 
with  power  brakes  and  automatic  couplers.  The  im- 
portance of  requiring  automatic  couplers  is  disclosed 
by  the  fact  that  during  a  recent  year  207  deaths  and 
3,002  injuries  to  employees  were  caused  by  coupling 
accidents.  During  the  same  year  nearly  600  deaths 
and  more  than  13,000  injuries  resulted  from  em- 
ployees falling  from  cars.  The  requirements  that 
train  crews  shall  mount  cars  to  operate  hand  brakes 
still  prevails  upon  some  railroads  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent.  The  Commission  has  the  power  to  designate 
all  safety  appliances  that  shall  be  used  and  the  man- 
ner of  their  placing,  such  as  grab  irons,  ladders, 
hand  brakes,  and  running  boards. 

One  of  the  problems  with  which  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  is  now  dealing  is  that  of  in- 
vestigating all  safety  devices  in  the  way  of  block 
signals  and  train  control.  More  than  a  thousand 
different  plans  of  devices  intended  to  promote  the 
safety  of  railway  operations  have  been  submitted  for 
examination  to  the  Block  Signal  and  Train  Control 
Board  organized  by  the  Commission.  These  devices 
apply  to  signals,  automatic  train  control,  ties,  rails, 
switches,  and  other  plans  for  making  railway  trans- 
portation safer.  One  of  the  things  which  the  board 
is  looking  for  is  a  really  efficient  and  always  reliable 
block  signal.     There  are  hundreds  of  signaling  de- 


THE   INTERSTATE   COMMISSION      239 

vices  which  will  warn  a  train  crew  when  everything 
goes  right,  but  as  soon  as  something  becomes  wrong 
with  their  own  apparatus  they  are  likely  to  give  the 
train  crew  a  track-clear  signal  when  they  ought  to 
display  the  danger  sign.  In  other  words,  the  really 
safe  block  signal  is  the  one  which,  will  warn  of  its 
own  defects,  as  well  as  of  dangers  ahead.  The  aver- 
age block-signal  device  puts  up  the  danger  signal 
when  there  is  another  train  in  the  block,  and  works 
all  right  so  long  as  there  is  no  break  in  its  mechan- 
ism. In  devices  of  this  kind  the  danger  sig  ^al  goes 
up  only  when  there  is  a  current  of  electricity  passing 
through  the  wire.  When  the  current  is  cut  off  or 
the  wire  is  broken  by  accident  or  malicious  design, 
the  semaphore  shows  clear.  Thus,  if  a  malicious 
person  were  to  tamper  with  the  apparatus  or  if  it 
should  in  anv  other  way  get  out  of  order  and  fail  to 
carry  the  current  of  electricity  through,  the  sema- 
phores would  signal  clear,  no  matter  what  dangers 
might  be  ahead.  The  closed-circuit  apparatus  over- 
comes this.  In  such  apparatus  the  semaphore  al- 
ways stands  at  danger  when  there  is  no  current  on, 
and  can  be  placed  at  clear  only  by  the  application  of 
a  current.  If  anything  goes  wrong  with  this  appa- 
ratus, the  semaphore  automatically  sets  itself  at  dan- 
ger, and  warns  the  oncoming  train.  No  matter  what 
goes  wrong,  as  soon  as  the  electric  current  ceases 
to  pass  through  the  apparatus  it  can  be  depended 
upon  to  stand  guard  at  the  block  with  its  danger 
signal  in  view.  It  may  sometimes  stop  a  train  when 
there  is  no  real  danger  ahead,  but  it  is  certain  never 
to  advise  an  engineer  that  the  track  ahead  of  him  is 


240       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

clear  when  it  is  in  reality  obstructed.  The  engineer 
of  a  fast-moving  train  must  accept  the  instructions 
of  the  signal,  and  with  the  open-circuit  signal  has 
no  means  of  knowing  whether  it  is  telling  the  truth 
or  not  when  showing  clear. 

In  addition  to  the  block-signal  investigation,  there 
is  the  proposition  of  controlling  trains  by  automatic 
agents.  It  is  hoped  a  device  may  be  found  by  which 
a  train  can  be  stopped  on  the  safe  side  of  the  danger 
line  even  though  the  engineer  be  asleep  or  dead  at 
his  post.  Such  an  apparatus  must  not  only  work 
well  on  paper,  but  it  must  show  up  satisfactorily 
under  practical  tests.  Hundreds  of  different  devices 
have  been  submitted  to  the  Train  Control  Board,  but 
few  of  them  have  had  merit  enough  even  to  warrant 
a  trial.  One  of  the  most  interesting  devices  which 
has  been  studied  and  tried  out  provides  an  automatic 
record  of  the  movement  of  all  trains  within  each  10 
or  20  blocks,  and  in  addition  to  this  provides  auto- 
matic protection  locally  for  all  the  trains.  In  each 
locomotive  cab  there  is  a  bell  and  a  light,  giving  both 
an  audible  and  a  visible  danger  signal.  Besides  this 
there  is  an  automatic  recording  device,  which  regis- 
ters the  action  of  the  engineer  in  response  to  this 
signal  and  the  time  of  that  action.  If  he  reverses 
his  engine  and  puts  on  the  emergency  braKe,  that 
action  is  automatically  registered.  If  he  fails  to  do 
so,  that  fact  is  shown,  and  the  brakes  are  automatic- 
ally applied  by  the  apparatus.  The  device  also  pro- 
vides a  means  of  interlocking  manual  control,  which 
is  so  arranged  as  to  make  any  false  movement  im- 
probable.    There  is  a  little  lever  projecting  up  from 


THE   INTERSTATE    COMMISSION      241 

the  track  when  in  position,  which  comes  into  contact 
with  another  lever  on  the  engine,  and  automatically 
puts  on  the  air  brakes  and  stops  the  train  if  the  en- 
gineer fails  to  obey  the  signals. 

The  outcome  of  the  investigation  of  the  Block  Sig- 
nal and  Train  Control  Board  will  probably  be  that 
as  soon  as  the  inventions  which  stand  the  test  of 
practical  operation  prove  their  merit,  a  report  will 
be  made  to  Congress  favoring  the  enactment  of  a  law 
requiring  all  railroads  to  equip  their  trains  and  lines 
with  these  protections  against  the  element  of  human 
error,  which  is  always  present  in  railroad  opera- 
tions. There  will  be  opposition  on  the  part  of  the 
railroads  to  the  enactment  of  such  a  law,  as  a  matter 
of  course.  There  was  opposition  to  the  enactment 
of  the  safety-appliance  law,  but  it  is  probable  that 
the  number  of  lives  that  have  been  saved  by  this  law 
and  the  consequent  falling  off  in  the  number  of  dam- 
age suits  against  the  railroads  have  more  than  reim- 
bursed the  railroads  for  their  expenditure  in  equip- 
ping their  trains  with  air  brakes  and  automatic 
couplings. 

A  law  v/as  enacted  a  few  years  ago  compelling  all 
railroads  doing  an  interstate  business  to  equip  their 
engines  with  ash  pans  such  as  would  overcome  the 
necessity  for  firemen  to  go  under  their  locomotives 
to  remove  ashes.  Another  law  which  is  of  recent 
enactment  is  the  one  that  requires  all  locomotive 
boilers  to  be  inspected.  Many  people  have  been 
killed  and  much  property  has  been  lost  by  the  explo- 
sion of  the  boilers  of  engines  in  the  yards  and  on  the 
roads.    The  new  law  is  similar  to  the  one  which  pro- 


242      THE    AMERICAN    GOVERNMENT 

vides  for  the  inspection  of  all  steamboats  carrying 
passengers  and  of  their  boilers.  The  country  is  laid 
off  into  a  number  of  districts,  with  an  inspector  for 
each  of  these  districts.  The  chief  of  the  inspection 
service  is  appointed  by  the  President,  and  he  has 
considerable  assistance  besides  the  district  inspect- 
ors throughout  the  country.  It  is  probable  that  a 
careful  list  of  specifications  will  be  drawn  up,  and 
that  the  locomotive  manufacturer  will  have  to  sub- 
mit the  materials  entering  into  the  construction  of 
the  boilers  to  the  boiler  inspectors.  In  addition  to 
this,  engines  in  service  will  be  inspected  at  frequent 
intervals  and  tests  will  be  made  to  determine 
whether  or  not  they  may  be  safely  used.  When  a 
locomotive  is  condemned  by  the  inspectors,  it  will  be 
sent  to  the  scrap  heap  or  to  the  repair  shop. 

Another  activity  of  the  Commission  has  to  do  with 
the  enforcement  of  the  provisions  of  a  law  which  for- 
bids railroad  employees  connected  with  the  move- 
ment of  trains  to  be  on  duty  more  than  a  specified 
number  of  hours  in  any  24.  This  law  will  not  allow 
a  railroad  man  to  work  extra  hours,  even  though  he 
desires  to  make  the  extra  pay  such  extra  work  car- 
ries with  it. 

Any  member  of  the  Commission  may  be  named  by 
the  President,  under  what  is  known  as  the  Erdmann 
Act,  to  cooperate  with  the  Commissioner  of  Labor 
in  any  effort  to  settle  any  differences  which  may 
arise  between  railroads  and  their  employees.  This 
measure  has  resulted  in  the  arbitration  of  many  dis- 
putes between  the  railroads  and  the  men  in  their 
employ. 


THE  INTERSTATE   COMMISSION      243 

It  seems  certain  that  as  the  years  go  by  stricter 
regulation  of  the  common  carriers  of  the  country 
will  be  the  policy  of  Congress.  The  duty  of  super- 
vising the  enforcement  of  the  laws  regulating  them 
will  fall  upon  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
and  as  nothing  affects  the  people  more  intimately 
than  transportation,  the  work  of  this  Commission 
will  be  felt  by  every  citizen  more  or  less  directly. 


XIX. 
OUR  INSULAR  POSSESSIONS. 

Few  Americans  realize  the  fact  that  the  United 
States  owns  and  exercises  jurisdiction  over  more 
than  3,000  of  the  islands  of  the  sea,  whose  aggregate 
population  is  upward  of  10,000,000,  and  the  combined 
area  of  which  is  more  than  700,000  square  miles. 

The  Philippine  Islands  and  Porto  Rico  are  largely 
autonomous,  framing  their  own  laws  under  the  lib- 
eral provisions  of  their  respective  organic  acts 
passed  by  Congress,  subject  to  review  by  Congress. 
The  affairs  of  these  islands  are  administered  by  the 
Bureau  of  Insular  Affairs  of  the  War  Department, 
through  which  information  respecting  them  is  dis- 
seminated. 

The  islands  of  the  Philippine  group  number  3,141, 
and  have  a  total  land  area  of  nearly  125,000  square 
miles,  approximately  that  of  the  six  New  England 
States,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey.  There  are 
some  8,000,000  people  in  the  Philippines,  about  seven 
and  one-half  million  of  whom  are  civilized.  Christian 
people,  the  Filipinos  being  the  only  Christian  people 
in  the  Orient.  The  remainder  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  islands  are  Mohammedans  and  pagans  who  main- 

245 


246       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

tained  autocratic  forms  of  tribal  government  until 
recently. 

The  whole  of  the  Archipelago  is  now  under  civil 
government,  but  in  some  of  the  islands  the  civil 
offices  are  occupied  by  military  officers.  The  Cen- 
tral Government  is  composed  of  the  Governor  Gen- 
eral, and  eight  commissioners,  four  of  whom  are 
Americans  and  four  Filipinos.  This  Commission  is 
the  upper  house  of  the  Philippine  Legislature,  the 
lower  house  being  the  Philippine  Assembly,  elected 
by  the  people  and  composed  at  present  entirely  of 
Filipinos.  This  legislature  has  general  legislative 
authority  in  the  islands,  except  over  that  part  inhab- 
ited by  Moros  or  other  non-Christian  tribes,  over 
which  the  Philippine  Commission  has  sole  legislative 
authority.  The  legislature  elects  two  Resident  Com- 
missioners to  the  United  States,  who  have  seats  in 
Congress.  The  United  States  has  gradually  ex- 
tended to  the  people  of  the  Philippine  Islands  such 
participation  in  the  government  of  the  islands  as 
they  have  shown  themselves  able  intelligently  to 
exercise. 

At  the  beginning  of  each  session  of  the  Philippine 
Legislature,  the  Governor  General  sends  a  message 
to  that  body,  which  corresponds  to  the  message  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States  to  CongTess,  con- 
cerning finances,  pending  matters,  and  desired  legis- 
lation. A  summer  capital  is  being  built  at  Bagnio, 
such  as  that  at  Simla,  India.  All  progressive  trop- 
ical countries  maintain  a  resort  at  an  altitude  which 
insures  a  cool  and  recuperative  climate  to  which  the 
offices  of  the  Government  may  be  temporarily  re- 


OUR  INSULAR  POSSESSIONS         247 

moved  during  the  heated  season,  which  is  beneficial 
not  only  to  those  suffering  from  disease,  but  also  to 
those  enjoying  good  health.  Construction  on  the 
Government  buildings  was  started  in  1909  and  has 
continued  as  rapidly  as  the  finances  of  the  Philip- 
pines would  permit.  The  other  improvements  in- 
clude a  large  number  of  cottages  and  two  large  dor- 
mitories. With  the  extension  of  the  railroad  into 
Baguio,  now  contracted  for,  the  value  of  Baguio  will 
be  greatly  enhanced  to  the  Filipinos.  It  is  one  of 
the  possibilities  of  the  future  that  a  university  may 
be  built  there. 

The  annual  report  of  the  Philippine  Commission 
makes  a  number  of  recommendations  to  Congress 
respecting  enabling  legislation  which  it  deems  neces- 
sary for  the  islands,  and  the  Governor  General  in  his 
annual  message  to  the  legislature  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  Manila  is  one  of  the  few  large  cities  of 
the  world  of  great  importance  which  has  no  gas  plant 
and  recommends  that  the  legislature  grant  a  prop- 
erly guarded  franchise  to  parties  who,  he  under- 
stands, are  ready  to  construct  such  a  plant. 

The  Governor  General  has  oversight  of  the  admin- 
istration of  all  public  affairs  in  the  islands.  He  has 
under  his  executive  control  and  supervision  the  Ex- 
ecutive Bureau,  the  Bureau  of  Audits,  the  Bureau 
of  Civil  Service,  as  well  as  the  provincial  and  mu- 
nicipal governments,  including  the  city  of  Manila. 
He  has  the  power  of  parole  and  pardon,  may  change 
the  boundary  of  any  province,  municipality,  or  other 
political  subdivision,  and  may  close  or  open  certain 
ports  of  entry. 


248       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

One  of  the  chief  officials  directly  under  the  Gov- 
ernor General  is  the  executive  secretary,  who  has 
duties  assigned  to  him  which  are  combined  in  no  one 
official  in  our  Government.  The  executive  control 
vested  in  the  Central  Government  of  the  Philippine 
Islands  over  provincial  and  municipal  governments 
is  exercised  directly  by  the  Governor  General 
through  the  executive  secretary.  He  also  conducts 
much  of  the  correspondence  of  the  Governor  General 
in  his  name. 

The  man  who  has  some  of  the  most  arduous  work 
of  the  whole  governmental  service  in  the  Philippine 
Islands  is  the  secretary  of  the  interior.  One  of  the 
problems  which  confronts  him  is  that  of  control  over 
and  development  of  the  more  or  less  uncivilized 
tribes,  all  of  which  widely  differ  in  customs,  dialect, 
and  pursuits,  and  even  in  race.  With  more  than 
half  a  million  of  these  people,  many  of  whom  for- 
merly practiced  head-hunting  and  had  little  respect 
for  justice  or  right  as  it  was  practiced  on  them,  the 
problem  of  winning  their  friendship  and  cooperation 
has  been  a  most  difficult  one.  -Until  the  advent  of  the 
Americans,  these  people  were  exploited  commer- 
cially by  the  Spaniards  and  more  intelligent  Filipi- 
nos, but  under  the  present  form  of  civil  government 
they  have  come  to  look  upon  the  Americans  with 
genuine  regard  as  friends  who  will  protect  them  in 
their  rights  as  well  as  sternly  punish  them  when  they 
offend.  Through  this  means  of  attraction,  impartial 
justice,  and  the  gradual  growth  of  confidence,  the 
American  influence  is  being  extended  farther  and 
farther  into  the  hitherto  trackless  and  inaccessible 


OUR  INSULAR  POSSESSIONS         249 

regions,  bringing  more  and  more  of  them  into  peace- 
ful occupations,  and  lessening  every  day  the  depre- 
dations and  intertribal  conflicts  of  the  past.  The 
sharply  drawn  tribal  lines  of  old  are  disappearing, 
and  Igorots,  Ifugaos,  and  Kalingas  now  visit  each 
other's  territory  in  peace  and  meet  in  friendly  con- 
tests of  strength  and  skill.  The  practice  of  head- 
hunting as  a  method  of  settling  quarrels  or  gaining 
prestige  is  lessening,  and  the  use  of  the  courts  and 
appeals  to  the  American  governor  are  becoming 
more  and  more  the  method  of  settling  disputes.  In 
many  instances,  these  people  are  being  successfully 
employed  to  police  their  own  country.  Unspeakably 
filthy  to^^^ls  have  been  made  clean  and  sanitary,  and 
they  are  learning  to  come  to  a  physician  when  in- 
jured or  ill. 

The  Filipinos  feel  that  they  ought  to  be  permitted 
to  govern  the  uncivilized  tribes.  The  Americans  re- 
ply to  this  by  saying  that  there  is  no  basis  for  this 
claim,  either  in  justice  or  expediency,  and  by  calling 
attention  to  the  fact  that  wherever  the  people  of 
these  tribes  have  been  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
local  Filipino  government  they  have  not  been  pro- 
tected in  their  rights  or  helped  to  a  higher  plane  of 
human  existence.  These  tribes  even  hint  at  offering 
armed  resistance  to  any  attempt  to  take  them  from 
under  the  direct  supervision  and  control  of  the 
American  officials. 

The  Interior  Department  of  the  Philippines  covers 
a  large  range  of  activity.  One  of  the  bureaus  under 
its  charge  is  that  of  Health.  It  operates  the  Philip- 
pine   General    Hospital,  the  civil  hospital,  and  a 


250       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

number  of  other  hospitals  throughout  the  Archipel- 
ago. It  is  now  engaged  in  using  the  moving-picture 
show  as  a  method  of  bringing  a  knowledge  of  the 
necessity  of  sanitary  surroundings  to  the  people  of 
the  Philippines.  It  is  also  engaged  in  taking  care  of 
the  public  cemeteries  of  the  islands,  by  enforcing 
regulations  with  reference  to  their  establishment  and 
proper  maintenance.  Under  these  regulations  one 
no  longer  sees  in  the  Provinces  a  local  cemetery  as- 
suming the  form  of  a  tropical  jungle  partially  in- 
closed by  broken  fences  which  permit  hogs  and  dogs 
to  despoil  the  shallow  graves  of  the  dead.  The  Bu- 
reau of  Health  also  maintains  free  dispensaries,  and 
otherwise  looks  after  the  health  of  the  people. 

Owing  to  incomplete  returns,  vital  statistics  are 
yet  restricted  to  Manila.  The  death  rate  per  thou- 
sand among  Filipinos  in  Manila  is  very  high,  being 
47.65  for  1910,  as  against  12.05  for  Spaniards,  13.27 
for  Americans,  14.32  for  other  occidentals,  and  16.64 
for  Chinese.  Two-thirds  of  this  shocking  Filipino 
mortality  is  among  children  of  less  than  5  years  of 
age,  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  remarkably  high  birth 
rate  they  would  eventually  die  out.  In  Manila 
nearly  50  children  to  every  thousand  of  population 
are  born  annually.  While  complete  and  fairly  reli- 
able vital  statistics  are  not  yet  available  for  the  Phil- 
ippine Islands  as  a  whole,  the  facts  relative  to  Gov- 
ernment employees  are  definitely  known.  The  death 
rate  among  them  for  the  fiscal  year  1910  was  but  5.82 
per  thousand.  Insurance  companies  now  write  in- 
surance for  residents  of  these  islands  on  the  same 
terms  as  they  would  give  them  in  the  United  States. 


OUE  INSULAR  POSSESSIONS         251 

Cholera  epidemics  in  the  Philippines  are  growing 
fewer  each  year,  and  leprosy  is  being  rapidly  wiped 
out.  The  total  number  of  lepers  in  the  islands  to- 
day is  placed  at  2,272,  as  against  approximately 
4,700  when  the  work  of  segregating  them  began.  The 
bureau  maintains  a  leper  colony  on  an  isolated  is- 
land, in  which  the  patients  are  given  all  possible  lib- 
erty and  diversion,  and  every  possible  effort  is  being 
made  to  find  some  method  of  successfully  treating 
this  dread  disease.  The  real  plague  of  the  Philip- 
pines is  said  to  be  tuberculosis,  and  a  widespread 
campaign  is  being  instituted  to  put  an  end  to  its  rav- 
ages. A  Marine  Quarantine  Service  is  also  main- 
tained under  the  direction  of  the  Interior  Depart- 
ment, as  are  also  a  Forestry  Service,  a  Bureau 
of  Science,  a  Weather  Bureau.,  and  a  Bureau  of 
Lands. 

Millions  of  acres  of  public  lands  are  subject  to 
homesteading  in  the  Philippines,  but  the  homesteads 
taken  up  amount  to  less  than  2,000  a  year.  One  of 
the  principal  ailments  of  the  Philippines  in  an  eco- 
nomic sense  is  that  they  are  "land  poor."  Under 
the  legislation  now  existing,  no  individual  may  home- 
stead or  purchase  more  than  40  acres  of  public  land 
from  the  Government.  The  average  area  of  all  ap- 
plications for  free  patents  received  is  only  approxi- 
mately 8  acres.  A  corporation  may  now  purchase 
not  more  than  2,500  acres  of  public  land.  The  com- 
mission has  recommended  to  Congress  that  the  limit 
for  homesteading  be  increased  to  125  acres,  and  that 
the  limit  purchasable  by  an  individual  be  increased 
to  1,250  acres,  and  by  a  corporation  be  increased  to 


252       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

15,000  acres,  in  order  to  encourage  the  establishment 
of  large  plantations  with  modern  equipment  and  per- 
mit the  development  of  the  country. 

Another  of  the  departments  of  the  Philippine  Gov- 
ernment is  that  of  Commerce  and  Police.  It  has 
supervision  over  the  bureaus  of  Constabulary,  Pub- 
lic Works,  Navigation,  Posts,  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  and  Labor,  and  the  offices  of  Consulting 
Architect  and  the  Supervising  Railway  Expert.  In 
addition  to  this,  it  is  charged  with  the  general  super- 
vision of  all  corporations  other  than  building  and 
loan  associations,  banks,  and  trust  companies. 

The  Philippine  Constabulary  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  bodies  of  police  m  the  world.  A  large 
number  of  men  who  constitute  the  constabulary  were 
head-hunting  savages  only  a  few  years  ago.  They 
are  thoroughly  loyal  to  the  United  States,  and  are 
of  immense  aid  to  the  American  Government  in 
maintaining  peace  and  prosperity  in  the  islands. 

A  postal-savings  bank  and  an  insular  telegraph 
and  cable  system  are  maintained  in  connection  with 
the  postal  service  of  the  islands.  The  postal-savings 
bank  had  13,000  active  accounts  in  1910,  and  the  num- 
ber of  depositors  is  increasing  at  the  rate  of  over 
4,000  a  year.  Nearly  two-thirds  of  the  depositors 
are  Filipinos. 

The  Bureau  of  Public  Works  awards  large  prizes 
to  the  Provinces  maintaining  the  best  road  systems. 
A  prize  of  $5,000  is  awarded  to  the  Province  having 
the  best  maintained  and  most  complete  system  of 
first-class  roads,  and  a  similar  prize  is  given  for  the 
second-class  roads  and  for  the  greatest  expenditure 


OUR  INSULAR  POSSESSIONS         253 

for  roads  and  bridges  proportionate  to  revenue  re- 
ceipts. 

Thv3  Department  of  Finance  and  Justice  has 
charge  of  the  courts,  the  enforcement  of  the  law,  the 
collection  of  internal  revenue  and  of  customs  re- 
ceipts, together  with  the  other  financial  operations 
of  the  islands. 

The  Department  of  Public  Instruction  is  train- 
ing the  Filipinos  to  use  the  English  language.  A 
larger  proportion  of  the  population  is  now  speaking 
English  than  were  speaking  Spanish  at  the  time  the 
Americans  entered  the  islands.  The  Bureau  of 
Agriculture  and  the  prison  administration  are  also 
under  the  direction  of  the  department  of  Public  In- 
struction. Bilibid  Prison,  at  Manila,  is  one  of  the 
largest  in  the  world.  It  is  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  progressive  prisons  possessed  by  any  country. 

A  penal  colony  is  maintained  on  a  reservation  of 
360  square  miles  on  the  island  of  Palawan,  in  the 
south,  where  there  are  about  1,000  convicts,  many  of 
whom  have  their  wives  with  them.  Fire-arms  are 
not  permitted  on  the  reservation,  and  there  are  no 
guards,  jails,  or  prisons,  yet  peace  and  order  are 
maintained  as  satisfactorily  as  in  any  ordinary  com- 
munity. These  convicts  have  a  sort  of  government 
of  their  own  and  are  given  considerable  liberty,  being 
permitted  to  engage  in  agriculture  and  other  pur- 
suits. Almost  without  exception  they  have  not 
abused  the  liberties  given  them. 

All  of  the  various  services  in  connection  with  the 
conduct  of  the  Government  in  the  Philippine  Islands 
are  paid  for  entirely  out  of  Philippine  revenues. 


254       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

The  island  of  Porto  Rico  is  another  possession  of 
the  United  States.  It  is  governed  by  a  governor  ap- 
pointed by  the  President  of  the  United  States  and 
a  legislature  which  consists  of  two  houses,  one 
elected  by  the  people  and  the  other  appointed  by 
authority  of  the  President.  It  has  a  Resident  Com- 
missioner in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States. 

The  island  is  prospering  under  the  form  of  govern- 
ment which  it  has  been  given,  but  at  the  same  time 
the  people  are  dissatisfied  with  their  political  status. 
They  are  very  anxious  to  have  the  Executive  Coun- 
cil, which  constitutes  the  upper  branch  of  the  legisla- 
ture, abolished,  and  an  elective  senate  substituted  in 
its  place.  They  also  feel  that  they  are  entitled  to 
become  full-fledged  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and 
insist  that  their  form  of  government  shall  be  so 
changed  that  the  executive  branch  is  entirely  di- 
vorced from  participation  in  the  affairs  of  the  legis- 
lative branch.  The  expenses  incident  to  conducting 
the  Government  of  Porto  Rico  are  borne  entirely 
from  Porto  Rican  revenues. 

The  Philippines  are  not  the  only  islands  in  the 
Orient  in  the  possession  of  the  United  States.  The 
island  of  Guam,  with  a  population  of  nearly  12,000, 
was  ceded  to  the  United  States  by  Spain,  and  is  used 
as  a  naval  station.  The  commandant  of  the  naval 
'  station  is  also  governor  of  the  island.  It  has  a  cir- 
cuit court,  an  island  court,  and  a  court  of  appeals. 
The  Spanish  colonial  laws  are  in  force  in  Guam,  ex- 
cept as  they  are  modified  by  executive  orders  issued 
by  the  governor.    A  compulsory  school  system  is 


OUR  INSULAE  POSSESSIONS         255 

now  in  operation,  and  the  children  are  being  tanght 
the  English  language,  carpentry,  and  other  handi- 
crafts. 

The  United  States  also  owns  those  of  the  Samoan 
Islands  which  lie  east  of  longitude  171°  west.  The 
commandant  of  the  naval  station  at  Pago  Pago  is 
governor  of  the  islands  and  has  power  to  appoint 
officers  and  frame  laws  or  ordinances,  but  native 
customs  which  are  not  inconsistent  with  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  are  not  changed  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  people.  The  natives  have  very  little 
money,  so  they  usually  pay  their  taxes  in  trade. 

Hawaii,  now  a  Territory  of  the  United  States,  for- 
merly known  as  the  Sandwich  Islands,  sustains  a 
different  relation  toward  the  United  States  from 
that  of  the  other  insular  possessions.  This  comes 
about  by  reason  of  :he  fact  that  the  islands  were  an- 
nexed by  Congress,  and  are  as  much  a  part  of  the 
country  as  is  Alaska,  or  as  Arizona  or  New  Mexico 
ever  have  been.  The  Philippines,  Porto  Rico,  and 
the  other  islands  are  simply  possessions  of  the 
United  States ;  Hawaii  is  a  part  of  it.  The  Terri- 
tory has  a  legislature  of  two  houses — a  senate  of  15 
members  elected  for  four  years,  and  a  house  of  rep- 
resentatives of  30  members  elected  for  two  years. 
The  people  have  a  chance  to  govern  themselves  in  a 
large  measure.  In  1910  they  held  a  prohibition  elec- 
tion which  went  wet,  3  to  1. 

Forestry  is  carried  on  in  Hawaii,  and  bulletins  of 
instructions  printed  in  English  and  Hawaiian  in  re- 
gard to  planting  and  caring  for  fruit  trees  are  dis- 
tributed among  the  people.     The  second  Friday  of 


256       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

November  in  eacli  year  is  set  apart  as  Arbor  Day, 
and  it  is  said  that  the  young  Hawaiian  is  as  much 
of  a  forest  enthusiast  as  any  other  young  American. 
A  Federal  experiment  station  is  maintained  in  Ha- 
waii, and  experiments  of  all  kinds  with  reference  to 
Hawaiian  products  are  being  made.  It  is  probable 
that  one  of  the  outcomes  of  the  work  of  the  experi- 
ment station  will  result  in  the  establishment  of  many 
cotton  plantations.  In  one  locality  an  acre  of  sea- 
island  cotton  planted  on  coral  limestone  soil  yielded 
an  average  of  700  bolls  per  plant  within  six  months. 
The  investigations  with  reference  to  leprosy  which 
are  being  carried  on  in  Hawaii  are  among  the  most 
remarkable  yet  attempted.  They  have  shown  that 
the  mosquito  plays  no  part  in  the  transmission  of  the 
disease,  but  that,  under  certain  conditions,  the  fly 
conveys  the  germ  in  large  numbers.  It  has  also  been 
shown  that  heredity  is  not  a  factor  in  its  spread,  and 
that  it  can  not  be  received  except  by  infection.  The 
experimenters  are  now  trying  to  find  a  vaccine  to  be 
used  in  the  treatment  of  the  disease.  There  are  yel- 
low-fever mosquitoes  on  the  islands,  but  none  of 
these  are  able  to  do  any  damage  so  long  as  yellow 
fever  is  kept  out.  The  malarial  mosquito  has  never 
been  introduced,  consequently  malaria  is  unknown  in 
the  islands. 


HOW  CONGEESS  LEGISLATES. 

The  procedure  by  wliich  the  two  Houses  of  Con- 
gress take  up  the  45,000  bills  introduced  by  their 
Members,  select  from  them  the  ideas  which  are  to 
be  incorporated  into  law,  and  work  them  over  into 
perfected  legislation,  is  most  involved  and  compli- 
cated, but  nothing  is  left  undone  to  insure  the  suc- 
cessful operation  of  the  legislative  machine  at  all 
stages.  The  misplacement  of  a  comma  may  involve 
the  constitutionality  of  a  law  or  change  the  purpose 
of  a  million-dollar  approjDriation. 

It  is  evident  that  comparatively  few  of  the  bills 
which  are  introduced  during  the  life  of  a  single  Con- 
gress have  any  chance  of  being  enacted  into  legisla- 
tion or  even  of  being  considered  by  the  two  Houses. 
If  only  four  minutes  were  given  to  the  consideration 
of  each  of  the  bills  introduced,  it  would  require  Con- 
gress to  stay  in  session  300  days  in  the  year  to  dis- 
pose of  them  all. 

This  discloses  the  reason  why  the  House  and  the 
Senate  must  be  subdivided  into  committees  which 
can  consider  these  matters  and  report  their  conclu- 
sions to  their  respective  bodies.  Sometimes  the 
action  of  a  committee  may  be  reversed,  but  this  is 

257 


258       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

the  exception  rather  than  the  rule.  In  order  for  the 
reader  to  get  a  proper  idea  of  the  operation  of  the 
legislative  machine  in  the  taking  of  a  bill  introduced 
by  a  Member  and  working  it  over  into  a  Federal 
statute,  let  us  take  an  actual  bill  and  follow  it 
through  all  of  its  stages,  from  its  introduction  to  its 
approval  by  the  President  and  its  enshrinement  as 
a  law. 

On  March  23,  1909,  Representative  John  J.  Esch, 
of  Wisconsin,  introduced  a  bill  requiring  railroads, 
and  other  common  carriers  engaged  in  interstate 
and  foreign  commerce  to  make  full  reports  of  all 
accidents  to  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
and  authorizing  investigations  thereof  by  the  Com- 
mission. He  placed  this  bill,  with  many  others,  in 
what  is  known  as  the  "hopper"  of  the  House,  a  large 
basket  in  which  Members  place  all  bills  which  they 
introduce.  The  Parliamentary  Clerk  at  the  Speak- 
er's table,  acting  in  behalf  of  the  Speaker,  and  in 
accordance  with  the  rules  of  the  House,  wrote  on  the 
bill  a  statement  referring  it  to  the  Committee  on  In- 
terstate and  Foreign  Commerce.  The  bill  was  then 
sent  to  the  Journal  Clerk  and  other  clerks  of  the 
House,  where  records  of  its  introduction  were  made. 
At  this  stage  of  the  journey  the  newspaper  men  had 
an  opportunity  to  read  it  and  to  report  it  to  their 
papers. 

After  the  House  records  of  the  introduction  of  the 
bill  were  completed,  it  was  sent  to  the  Government 
Printing  Office,  and  625  copies  of  it  were  printed. 
These  copies  were  deposited  in  the  document  room, 
where  files  of  all  bills  are  kept.     Two  copies  of  the 


HOW  CONGRESS  LEGISLATES        259 

bill  were  delivered  to  tlie  bill  clerks  of  the  two 
Houses,  and  two  copies  to  the  distributing  clerk,  one 
of  them  going  to  the  committee  to  which  the  bill  was 
referred. 

The  Committee  on  Interstate  and  Foreign  Com- 
merce holds  frequent  meetings,  and  at  one  of  these 
meetings  it  considered  this  bill.  In  the  considera- 
tion of  the  bill  the  committee  decided  that  it  ought 
to  be  amended,  and  by  a  majority  vote  an  amend- 
ment was  adopted. 

On  December  14,  1909,  the  committee  voted  to  re- 
port the  measure  to  the  House  with  its  amendment 
and  to  recommend  its  passage.  When  the  hour  for 
making  committee  reports  arrived,  Mr.  Esch  an- 
nounced that  his  committee,  having  considered  the 
bill,  had  decided  to  report  it  favorably  with  amend- 
ment, and  that  it  was  accompanied  by  a  written  re- 
port of  the  committee.  Thereupon,  the  Speaker  or- 
dered the  bill  and  the  report  referred  to  the  House 
Calendar. 

It  then  went  on  another  trip  through  the  hands  of 
the  recording  clerks  of  the  House,  and  was  sent  to 
the  Government  Printing  Office,where  1,000  copies  of 
the  bill  and  report  were  printed.  On  the  following 
day,  which  was  known  as  Calendar  Wednesday,  the 
Speaker  directed  the  call  of  committees,  and  when 
the  Committee  on  Interstate  and  Foreign  Commerce 
was  reached.  Representative  James  Mann  called  up 
this  bill  from  the  House  Calendar,  he  being  chair- 
man of  the  committee. 

The  Speaker  announced  that  the  Clerk  would  re- 
port the  bill.     This  meant  that  the  Clerk  would  read 


260       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

tlie  bill  in  full,  together  with  the  amendment  pro- 
posed by  the  committee.  Thereupon,  Mr.  Mann  an- 
nounced that  he  would  yield  to  Mr.  Esch  such  time 
as  he  required  to  discuss  the  provisions  of  the  biR 
and  the  amendment  made  by  the  committee.  Each 
side  of  the  House,  Republican  and  Democratic,  is 
given  an  equal  length  of  time  in  which  to  debate  any 
bill,  when  the  pending  matter  is  a  party  question; 
when  it  is  not  a  party  question,  the  proponents  and 
opponents  of  the  measure  divide  the  time  for  debate 
equally.  After  the  Esch  bill  was  debated,  the  ques- 
tion was  taken  on  its  passage,  and  there  being  no 
strenuous  opposition  to  it,  it  was  passed  without 
division. 

The  Clerk  of  the  House  thereupon  certified  that 
the  measure  had  passed  the  House,  and  again  it  went 
through  the  process  of  being  recorded  and  printed, 
and  a  certified  copy  was  carried  by  the  Clerk  of  the 
House  to  the  Senate  Chamber.  Upon  entering  the 
Senate  Chamber,  the  Sergeant  at  Arms  of  the  Senate 
announced  to  the  Vice  President  the  arrival  of  a 
message  from  the  House.  Upon  being  recognized, 
the  House  Clerk  stated  to  the  Senate  that  he  had 
been  directed  to  announce  that  the  House  had  passed 
this  bill.  Thereupon  the  Vice  President  took  the 
bill  and  referred  it  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  In- 
terstate Commerce. 

When  the  Senate  Committee  on  Interstate  Com- 
merce received  the  bill,  its  clerk  sent  notices  to  the 
various  members  of  the  committee  that  a  meeting 
would  be  held  for  the  consideration  of  this  and  other 
measures.    When  the  meeting  was  held,  the  mem- 


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HOW  CONGRESS  LEGISLATES        261 

bers  gathered  around  a  long  table,  seated  in  the 
order  of  the  length  of  their  service  on  the  committee, 
the  chaiiman  at  the  head  of  the  table.  They  dis- 
cussed the  measure  and  decided  to  amend  it  so  as  to 
make  it  differ  from  the  bill  which  passed  the  House. 
Later,  on  February  18,  1910,  Senator  Cullom  re- 
ported the  bill  to  the  Senate  with  the  amendments 
the  committee  had  added,  and  with  a  report  from 
the  committee  thereon.  On  February  23  the  bill  was 
taken  from  the  Calendar  and  consideration  of  it  be- 
gun. Thereupon  Senator  Aldrich  declared  that 
there  were  some  changes  which  ought  to  be  made 
and  requested  that  it  be  referred  back  to  the  com- 
mittee for  further  consideration.  The  Vice  Presi- 
dent called  for  a  vote  on  that  proposition,  and  it  w^as 
so  referred. 

The  committee  reported  it  back  to  the  Senate  with 
further  amendments  on  March  15.  On  March  21  the 
bill  was  brought  up  before  the  Senate,  and  was  de- 
bated by  that  body,  sitting  as  a  Committee  of  the 
Whole.  The  various  Members  of  the  Senate  dis- 
cussed it,  and  then  postponed  further  consideration 
because  of  the  absence  of  Senator  Cullom.  On  April 
7  Senator  Cullom  asked  unanimous  consent  that  the 
bill  be  taken  up  for  consideration,  and  the  Senate, 
sitting  as  a  Committee  of  the  Whole,  resumed  con- 
sideration of  the  measure.  Senator  Heyburn  had 
objected  to  a  certain  passage  in  it  and  upon  this  ob- 
jection Senator  Cullom  moved  that  the  passage  be 
stricken  from  the  measure.  This  was  agreed  to. 
Then  Senator  Cullom  moved  another  amendment  to 
make  the  measure  effective  60  days  after  its  passage. 


262       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

This  amendment  also  was  carried.  Then  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole  was  through  with  its  work  and 
reported  the  bill  to  the  Senate  as  amended.  The 
Senate  thereupon  ordered  the  amendment  to  be  en- 
grossed and  the  bill  to  be  read  a  third  time.  The 
Reading  Clerk  then  read  out  the  title  of  the  bill,  and 
the  Senate  passed  it  without  division. 

Then  the  measure  was  printed  again  as  passed  by 
the  Senate,  and  its  Clerk  carried  a  certified  copy  of 
the  amended  measure  back  to  the  House  with  the 
announcement  to  that  body  that  he  was  directed  to 
announce  that  the  Senate  had  passed  the  bill  with 
amendments.  On  April  9  the  Speaker  laid  before 
the  House  the  bill  with  the  Senate  amendments,  and 
a  motion  was  made  that  the  Senate  amendments  be 
disagreed  to  and  that  the  House  ask  for  a  confer- 
ence. This  motion  prevailed  and  the  Speaker  ap- 
pointed the  two  senior  Republican  members  and  the 
Senior  Democratic  member  of  the  House  Committee 
on  Interstate  and  Foreign  Commerce  as  conferees  on 
the  part  of  the  House.  Then  the  Clerk  of  the  House 
went  back  to  the  Senate  and  informed  that  body  that 
the  House  had  disagreed  to  the  Senate  amendments 
and  desired  a  conference  with  the  Senate  on  the  dis- 
agreeing votes  of  the  two  Houses.  The  Senate 
thereupon  voted  to  insist  upon  its  amendments  and 
agreed  to  a  conference,  and  the  Vice  President  ap- 
pointed Senators  Cullom,  Aldrich,  and  Foster  as 
conferees  on  the  part  of  the  Senate.  They  there- 
upon met  with  the  conferees  from  the  House,  and 
smoothed  out  and  compromised  the  differences  be- 
tween the  two  bodies  upon  this  bill.  They  then  drew 


HOW  CONGRESS  LEGISLATES        263 

up  a  conference  report,  which  was  presented  in  the 
Senate  and  the  House,  and  both  bodies  agreed  to  it. 

Thereupon  the  completed  measure  was  referred  to 
the  Committee  on  Enrolled  Bills,  which  examined  it 
and  reported  to  the  Speaker  that  it  had  found  it 
truly  enrolled,  after  which  the  Speaker  signed  it  and 
sent  it  to  the  Senate  with  the  announcement  that  he 
had  done  so.  Then  the  Vice  President  signed  it  and 
then  the  Committee  on  Enrolled  Bills  sent  it  by  mes- 
senger to  the  President,  who  approved  it  with  his 
signature,  and  announced  to  the  Senate  and  House 
that  he  had  done  so,  through  a  message  in  writing 
borne  to  those  bodies  by  one  of  his  secretaries. 

Of  course  there  are  many  variations  in  the  pro- 
cedure of  carrying  a  measure  through  Congress  from 
the  introduced  bill  to  the  approved  law.  It  happens 
in  many  instances  that  the  bill  comes  out  of  the  com- 
mittee having  it  under  consideration  without  amend- 
ment, passes  the  House  without  amendment,  goes  to 
the  Senate,  and  is  there  reported  by  the  committee 
without  amendment  and  is  accepted  in  its  original 
form  by  the  Senate.  In  such  cases  no  conference 
committees  are  appointed,  and  the  act  goes  to  the 
President  in  its  original  shape.  In  other  cases  the 
Senate  originates  the  bill  and  passes  it  and  allows 
the  House  to  follow  its  lead.  Each  branch  has  equal 
authority  in  the  origination  of  legislation  except  that 
the  Constitution  gives  the  House  the  exclusive  right 
to  originate  revenue  measures. 

Another  exception  has  grown  up  in  the  practice  of 
allowing  all  of  the  big  appropriation  bills  to  origin- 
ate in  the  House.  When  one  of  the  big  appropriation 


264       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

bills  is  being  prepared,  tbe  officials  of  tlie  Govern- 
ment, with  whose  activities  the  bill  is  concerned,  are 
heard  by  the  comoaittee  having  the  measure  in 
charge.  Most  of  these  measures  are  prepared  by 
the  House  Committee  on  Appropriations,  although 
some  of  them  are  prepared  by  other  committees.  The 
hearings,  under  which  the  appropriations  are  recom- 
mended by  the  committee,  are  printed  for  the  infor- 
mation of  both  branches  of  Congress,  so  that  every 
Member  shall  be  able  to  inform  himself  upon  them. 
After  the  committee  makes  its  report,  the  bill  is 
placed  on  the  calendar,  and  at  the  proper  time  the 
chairman  of  the  committee  arises,  addresses  the 
Speaker,  and  makes  a  motion  that  the  House  go  into 
the  Committee  of  the  "Whole  House  on  the  state  of 
the  Union  for  the  consideration  of  bill  numbered 
so-and-so,  making  such-and-such  appropriations. 
The  motion  for  the  House  to  go  into  Committee  of 
the  Whole  is  put  and  agreed  to.  Thereupon  the 
Speaker  calls  some  member  of  the  majority  to  the 
chair,  turns  the  gavel  over  to  him,  and  retires.  Also, 
the  mace,  which  is  the  emblem  of  the  authority  of 
the  House,  is  taken  from  its  pedestal  and  free  debate 
is  begun. 

It  is  while  the  House  is  in  Committee  of  the  WTiole 
on  the  state  of  the  Union  that  the  Members  talk  upon 
all  topics  under  the  sun,  more  frequently  than  not 
germane  to  anything  else  than  the  pending  bill.  The 
Presiding  Officer  is  no  longer  addressed  as  ''Mr. 
Speaker,"  but  as  ''Mr.  Chairman."  After  debate 
has  continued  until  time  for  adjournment  or  until 
other  matters  claim  the  attention  of  the  House,  the 


HOW  CONGRESS  LEGISLATES        265 

Representative  in  charge  of  the  bill  addresses  the 
chair  and  moves  that  the  committee  rise.  There- 
upon the  Speaker  returns  and  takes  the  chair.  The 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  then  ad- 
dresses him  and  announces  that  the  committee,  hav- 
ing had  under  consideration  the  pending  bill,  has 
come  to  no  resolution  thereon.  This  process  is  re- 
peated from  day  to  day  until  the  consideration  of 
the  bill  is  completed. 

A  motion  is  then  made  that  the  committee  rise  and 
report  the  bill  with  such  amendments  as  have  been 
decided  on,  with  the  recommendation  that  the  House 
pass  it.  The  committee  thereupon  rises,  the  Speaker 
resumes  the  chair,  and  the  Chairman  reports  the  rec- 
ommendation of  the  committee.  If  a  separate  vote 
is  not  demanded  upon  each  amendment  they  are  all 
voted  on  at  once,  the  Chairman  demands  the  previous 
question  upon  his  motion  that  the  bill  shall  pass,  and 
if  that  motion  prevails,  no  further  debate  is  in  order. 
Procedure  in  the  Senate  is  in  large  measure  the 
same,  with  the  exception  that  the  previous  question, 
cutting  off  further  debate,  is  never  in  order.  Often- 
times, in  fact  usually,  each  House  puts  certain  pro- 
visions into  a  bill  which  it  does  not  expect  the  other 
House  to  approve,  but  which  it  thinks  will  serve  a 
good  purpose  in  negotiating  compromises  which  are 
necessary  before  the  disagreements  of  the  Senate 
and  House  can  be  adjusted. 

On  questions  involving  political  considerations 
there  are  occasions  when  every  sort  of  stratagem 
known  to  parliamentary  law  is  resorted  to  both  in 
the  House  and  Senate.     The  rules  of  the  two  Houses 


266       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

are  full  and  complete,  and  the  Senator  or  Represen- 
tative who  would  make  the  most  of  the  parliamentary 
situation  when  a  gi'eat  political  battle  is  being  fought 
over  pending  legislation  must  be  a  master  of  parlia- 
mentary usages  in  general  and  the  rules  of  the  body 
of  which  he  is  a  member  in  particular.  There  are 
three  ways  in  the  Senate  to  get  a  matter  before  that 
body.  One  is  by  unanimous  consent,  the  second  by 
making  it  a  special  order,  which  requires  two-thirds 
vote,  and  the  third  is  by  taking  it  up  in  its  due 
course  on  the  calendar.  In  the  House  there  are 
three  calendars,  one  known  as  the  Union  Calendar, 
the  second  as  the  Unanimous  Consent  Calendar,  and 
the  third  as  the  House  Calendar.  It  is  much  easier 
to  get  a  matter  through  the  Senate  on  an  appeal  for 
unanimous  consent  than  through  the  House.  The 
rules  of  the  House  enable  the  majority,  as  long  as  it 
can  hold  its  forces  together,  to  pass  or  defeat  any 
measure  without  much  difficulty. 

Less  than  one-fiftieth  of  the  bills  introduced  in 
Congress  ever  reach  the  stage  of  enactment  in  law. 
A  larc;er  proportion  of  bills  for  the  relief  of  indi- 
viduals are  passed  than  those  of  a  public  nature. 
Only  a  few  hundred  public  laws  are  passed  by  a  sin- 
gle Congress.  If  every  amendment  to  the  Consti- 
tution which  has  been  proposed  in  the  last  10  years 
had  been  approved  by  Congress  and  ratified  by  the 
States  no  one  important  provision  of  that  ancient 
document  would  be  now  effective.  In  three  weeks  at 
the  beginning  of  the  first  session  of  a  Congress  joint 
resolutions  were  introduced  which  would  have  post- 
masters and  Federal  judges  elected  by  the  people, 


HOW  CONGRESS  LEGISLATES        267 

the  ancient  punishment  of  civil  ostracism  revived, 
the  independence  of  the  Philippines  declared,  the 
prohibition  of  a  protective  tariff  ordered,  a  censor- 
ship for  advertisements  created,  the  enacting  power 
of  Congress  taken  away,  and  the  printing  of  market 
quotations  forbidden. 

The  work  of  Congress  requires  an  adequate  plant 
as  well  as  a  capable  force  of  lawmakers.  Such  a 
plant  is  now  possessed  by  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  estimated  that  the  group  of  buildings 
which  constitute  the  national  law  factory  represents 
a  total  cost  of  $30,000,000.  The  Capitol  itself  has 
cost,  exclusive  of  repairs,  a  total  of  $15,000,000.  The 
Library  of  Congress  represents  an  expenditure  of 
$7,000,000  more,  while  the  cost  of  the  Office  Build- 
ings and  the  heating  plant  brings  the  total  up  to  more 
than  $30,000,000.  The  plant  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment cost  only  half  as  much,  while  those  of  the  Ger- 
man Reichstag  and  the  French  Parliament  cost  even 
less.  Many  improvements  yet  await  installation. 
One  of  these  is  an  air-cooling  plant  for  keeping  the 
Capitol  cool  in  summer  just  as  a  heating  plant  is  used 
to  keep  it  warm  in  winter.  The  British  Parliament 
has  installed  an  air-cooling  and  filtration  plant  in 
the  Parliament  buildings. 

The  Office  Buildings  of  the  House  and  Senate  are 
sumptuously,  yet  tastefully,  furnished.  The  restau- 
rant plant  in  the  Senate  Office  Building  is  elabo- 
rately equipped.  The  kitchen  is  fitted  with  an  elec- 
tric dish-washer,  an  electrical  ice  cream  making 
plant,  an  ice  crusher,  and  everything  else  a  palatial 
restaurant  needs.    Both  of  the  Office  Buildings  are 


268       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

equipped  with  expensive  baths,  and  a  Member  may 
have  anything  he  wishes  in  the  way  of  a  bath,  from 
a  needle  spray  to  a  seance  with  a  professional  mas- 
seur. A  large  tank  for  a  cold  plunge  is  also  in  use, 
and  there  is  nothing  to  excel  the  congressional  baths 
this  side  of  the  perfumed  ones  of  Rome  and  Pompeii. 
One  begins  to  realize  the  immensity  of  the  American 
legislative  plant  when  he  is  told  that  the  buildings 
constituting  it  contain  some  1,400  rooms  and  some  40 
elevators. 


XXI. 

THE  HOUSE  OF  KEPRESENTATIVES. 

As  tlie  branch  of  tlie  American  Congress  whicli  is 
closest  to  the  people,  receiving  its  authority  directly 
from  them,  and  going  back  to  them  every  two  years 
to  give  an  account  of  its  stewardship,  the  House  of 
Representatives  stands  as  the  nearest  approach  to  a 
reflection  of  the  will  of  the  people  that  is  to  be  found 
in  the  American  governmental  system.  Senators  are 
elected  for  a  term  of  six  years,  and  are  therefore 
less  subject  to  the  fluctuation  of  public  opinion  than 
Eepresentatives.  The  President  is  elected  for  a 
term  of  four  years,  and  public  opinion  may  swing  as 
a  pendulum  to  one  extreme  and  back  again  before 
the  country  has  a  chance  to  pass  upon  his  adminis- 
tration. Only  the  House  reflects  every  change  of 
sentiment  y>^hich  comes  over  the  people. 

The  House  of  Representatives  in  the  Sixty-third 
Congress  will  be  made  up  of  435  Members,  not  count- 
ing Delegates  from  the  Territories  and  Resident 
Commissioners  from  the  Philippines  and  Porto  Rico. 
The  membership  of  the  House  is  fixed  by  Congress. 
The  Constitution  provides  for  a  decennial  census  to 
determine  the  population  of  each  State  in  the  Union, 
in  order  to  determine  exactly  what  proportion  of  the 

269 


270       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

total  membership  shall  be  assigned  to  each  of  the 
several  States.  After  the  census  returns  at  the  be- 
ginning of  each  decade  are  in  hand,  Congress  takes 
up  the  problem  of  determining  the  size  of  the  House 
during  the  10  years  to  follow.  So  long  as  the  popu- 
lation of  the  country  continues  to  grow  as  rapidly  as 
it  has  in  the  past,  it  is  inevitable  that  either  the  num- 
ber of  Members  must  be  largely  increased,  or  else 
that  the  number  of  people  who  shall  constitute  the 
average  congressional  district  shall  be  correspond- 
ingly increased.  To  increase  the  membership  of  the 
House  in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  the  country 
would  result  in  that  body  becoming  so  large  as  to  be 
unwieldy.  On  the  other  hand,  to  maintain  it  at  the 
same  number  would  result  in  such  a  large  increase  in 
the  number  of  people  who  would  constitute  a  con- 
gressional constituency  that  States  with  slowly  ex- 
panding populations  would  lose  members,  while 
States  with  rapidly  growing  populations  would  gain 
a  corresponding  number  of  members.  So  Congress 
faces  the  problem  of  determining  upon  a  member- 
ship which  is  not  excessive  and  a  representation 
which  does  not  too  greatly  cut  down  the  existing  rep- 
resentation of  any  State.  Therefore  it  has  nearly 
always  increased  both  the  membership  of  the  House 
and  the  ratio  of  the  population  entitled  to  one  rep- 
resentation. For  instance,  the  House  under  the  ap- 
portionment of  1901  had  a  membership  of  391,  as 
compared  with  the  membership  of  435  under  the  ap- 
portionment of  1911,  while  the  ratio  of  population 
was  194,182,  under  the  census  of  1900,  as  compared 
with  211,877  for  the  census  of  1910. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES    271 

Not  all  congressional  districts  have  the  same  pop- 
ulation in  practice,  although  theoretically  they  should 
have.  This  is  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  congres- 
sional districts  usually  follow  county  lines,  town 
lines,  or  ward  lines  in  cities,  so  that  the  population 
can  not  therefore  be  divided  with  exactness.  Con- 
gress simply  apportions  representation  among  the 
various  States,  and  allows  each  State  to  fix  the  limits 
of  the  congressional  districts  to  which  it  is  entitled. 
In  fixing  these  lines  the  State  legislatures  frequently 
resort  to  what  is  known  as  gerrymandering.  That 
is,  if  the  Republicans  happen  to  control  the  legisla- 
ture of  a  State  when  a  redistricting  bill  is  pending, 
they  aim  to  crowd  all  of  the  strongly  Democratic 
counties  into  as  few  districts  as  possible,  thus  insur- 
ing Republican  representation  in  the  greatest  pos- 
sible number  of  districts  for  the  decade  ahead.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  the  Democrats  are  in  power,  they 
try  to  crowd  as  many  of  the  Republican  voters  into 
one  district  as  they  can.  This  sometimes  results  in 
remarkable  variation  from  the  ratio  of  representa- 
tion fixed  by  Congress.  For  instance,  under  the 
1900  census  the  ratio  was  194,182.  Yet  in  the  four- 
teenth district  of  Pennsylvania  there  was  a  popula- 
tion of  only  146,000,  while  in  the  third  district  there 
was  a  population  of  251,000. 

The  House  of  Representatives  is  not  a  continu- 
ing body.  Each  House  dies  with  the  fall  of  the 
Speaker's  gavel  at  noon  on  the  4th  of  March  of 
every  alternate  year.  The  new  Members  are 
elected  in  November  before  the  old  House  dies,  and 
they  go  upon  the  payroll  on  March  4,  the  day  of  the 


272       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

deatli  of  the  old  House.  Except  when  an  extra  ses- 
sion of  Congress  is  called,  the  new  Members  do  not 
begin  their  real  duties  as  legislators  until  the  first 
Monday  of  the  following  December. 

Just  before  a  new  House  of  Representatives  as- 
sembles the  members  of  each  political  party  hold  a 
caucus  to  nominate  candidates  for  the  elective  offi- 
cers of  the  House,  the  Speaker,  Clerk,  Chaplain, 
Sergeant  at  Arms  and  Doorkeeper.  Of  course  it  is 
known  long  in  advance  which  party  will  control  the 
House  and  elect  its  officers,  and  the  nominations 
made  by  the  other  party  are  merely  perfunctory. 

When  the  House  convenes  it  is  called  to  order  by 
the  Clerk  of  the  preceding  House,  and  no  other 
business  is  in  order  until  a  Speaker  is  elected.  Once 
the  Clerk  acted  as  presiding  officer  from  the  first  of 
December  to  nearly  the  middle  of  February,  while 
the  House  could  do  nothing  but  ballot  for  Speaker, 
none  of  the  political  factions  in  the  House  being 
able  to  muster  a  majority  for  its  candidate  for  the 
Speakership.  When  the  Clerk  of  the  former  House 
calls  the  new  one  to  order,  the  chairmen  of  the  party 
caucuses  nominate  the  caucus  candidates  for  the 
Speakership  and  a  ballot  is  taken  to  determine 
which  shall  be  chosen.  Of  course,  the  candidate  of 
the  party  which  has  a  majority  in  the  House  wins. 
A  committee  is  then  appointed  to  notify  him  of  his 
election,  and  to  escort  him  to  the  Speaker's  chair. 
Amid  loud  and  long  applause,  the  waving  of  thou- 
sands of  flags,  and  the  click  of  dozens  of  cameras, 
he  accepts  the  gavel  from  the  Clerk,  and  in  a  few 
words  thanks  the  Members  and  pledges  himself  to 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES    27^ 

fulfill  the  duties  of  Speaker.  After  this  the  caucus 
chairmen  bring  in  their  respective  resolutions,  nam- 
ing the  minor  elective  officers  of  the  House,  and,  of 
course,  the  resolution  of  the  majority  party  is 
adopted.     The  House  is  then  organized. 

The  next  step  after  the  House  has  chosen  its  staff 
of  officials  is  that  of  holdmg  the  great  biennial  lot- 
tery to  determine  the  choice  of  seats  in  the  House 
for  the  Congress  then  beginning.  When  a  new 
Congress  comes  into  being  all  of  its  Members  are 
supposed  to  be  equal  and  no  Member  is  entitled  to 
advantage  over  others  in  the  choice  of  seats.  The 
names  of  all  the  Members  of  the  House  are  arranged 
alphabetically  and  numbered  according  to  their  po- 
sition on  the  list.  Then  a  small  page  is  blindfolded 
and  told  to  draw  a  ball  out  of  a  box.  There  are  ex- 
actly as  many  balls  as  there  are  Members  of  the 
House,  and  each  ball  contains  a  number  correspond- 
ing to  that  of  a  Member.  An  official  shakes  the  box 
and  the  boy  draws  out  a  ball  and  hands  it  to  this 
official.  He  reads  the  number  on  it,  and  then  refers 
to  his  alphabetical  list.  If  Representative  Smith  is 
320th  on  the  list  and  the  ball  bears  the  number  320, 
Mr.  Smith  gets  first  choice  of  a  seat.  This  is  con- 
tinued all  the  way  down  through  the  list.  Before 
the  drawing  begins,  the  entire  floor  of  the  House  is 
cleared,  the  Members  retiring  to  the  area  behind  the 
railing,  and  going  forward  in  the  order  their  names 
are  called  by  the  officers  conducting  the  drawing. 
It  is  usual  to  exempt  former  Speakers  of  the  House, 
a  few  of  the  oldest  Members,  and  the  chairmen  of 
the  Committees  on  Ways  and  Means,  Rules  and  Ap- 


274       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

propriations,  all  of  these  being  permitted  to  select 
their  seats  before  the  drawing  begins.  The  only 
limitation  upon  the  choice  of  seats  is  that  the  Re- 
publicans take  one  side  of  the  center  aisle  and  the 
Democrats  the  other. 

The  next  question  which  comes  up  is  that  of  a 
code  of  rules  for  the  regulation  of  the  procedure  of 
the  House  during  the  life  of  the  Congress  then  be- 
ginning its  career.  Each  of  the  two  parties  offers 
a  code  of  rules,  usually  that  it  has  adopted  in  cau- 
cus. For  more  than  a  generation  after  the  Civil 
War  these  rules  gradually  gi^ew  more  and  more 
restrictive,  placing  the  power  of  the  House  more 
and  more  in  the  hands  of  the  Speaker,  and  giving 
greater  and  greater  sting  to  the  lash  of  the  party 
whip.  It  was  always  a  favorite  assertion  of  former 
Speaker  Cannon,  the  last  of  the  line  of  Republican 
Speakers  who  reigned  in  the  House  from  1895  to 
1911,  that  the  Speaker  was  the  creature  of  the 
House,  and  that  it  could  put  him  out  of  his  position 
any  hour  it  chose  to  do  so.  Yet  he  always  knew  his 
party  associates  would  put  up  with  almost  any  kind 
of  application  of  the  party  lash  rather  than  dethrone 
him.  Theoretically  he  was  absolutely  right;  prac- 
tically he  was  wholly  wrong. 

After  the  adoption  of  the  rules — and  it  is  always 
made  possible  to  suspend  them  when  political  or 
other  exigencies  require  it — the  next  question  is  the 
selection  of  the  committees  of  the  House.  For  a 
century  it  was  the  custom  for  the  Speaker  to  name 
all  of  the  members  of  the  various  committees.  In 
late  years  he  usually  consulted  the  minority  leader 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES    275 

as  to  the  personnel  of  the  minority  members  of  the 
committees,  but  this  was  an  unofficial  act  of  grace. 
When  the  Democrats  came  into  power  in  the  Sixty- 
second  Congress,  they  decided  that  the  power  to 
^appoint  committees  should  be  taken  from  the 
.Speaker  and  that  all  standing  committees  should  be 
elected  by  the  House.  The  Democrats  selected  ma- 
jority members  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee 
in  caucus  and  then  made  them  a  Committee  on  Com- 
mittees for  the  purpose  of  nominating  members  of 
the  standing  committees.  Its  selections  for  the  ma- 
jority representation  on  committees  were  ratified  by 
the  Democratic  caucus.  The  Democratic  majority 
permitted  the  Republican  minority  to  nominate  its 
representation  in  its  own  way,  and  the  Republican 
caucus  delegated  the  duty  to  the  minority  leader. 
The  nominations  were  then  all  confirmed  by  formal 
election  in  the  House. 

There  are  56  committees  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. Of  these  perhaps  less  than  half  are  of 
much  importance  except  upon  rare  occasions.  Theo- 
retically the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  is  the 
greatest  committee  of  the  House.  In  the  years  be- 
fore the  Civil  War  this  committee  not  only  had 
charge  of  all  legislation  for  the  raising  of  revenue, 
but  also  that  of  making  all  appropriations.  It  was 
then  decided  to  separate  the  work  of  the  committee, 
allowing  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  to  con- 
tinue in  charge  of  revenue  matters  and  creating 
an  Appropriations  Committee  in  charge  of  leg- 
islation carrying  appropriations.  At  that  time 
Thaddeus  Stevens  was  chairman  of  the  Ways  and 


276       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Means  Committee.  He  decided  that  the  Appropria- 
tions Committee  would  become  the  more  influential, 
and  took  the  chairmanship  of  Appropriations  in 
preference  to  that  of  Ways  and  Means. 

A  few  years  ago  a  contest  came  up  in  the  House 
which  disclosed  the  attitude  of  its  Members  with 
reference  to  the  question  of  the  relative  standing  of 
these  two  committees.  When  the  House  took  up  the 
matter  of  determining  which  committee  should  re- 
main in  the  Capitol  and  which  should  go  to  the  new 
House  Office  Building,  neither  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee  nor  the  Appropriations  Committee 
wished  to  move,  and  there  was  room  for  only  one 
of  them  to  stay.  They  couldn't  agree  on  the  matter 
themselves  and  so  referred  it  to  the  House,  which, 
by  a  large  majority,  decided  that  the  Appropriations 
Committee  should  be  allowed  to  retain  its  quarters 
in  the  Capitol  Building.  Since  the  Democrats  came 
into  power  in  the  Sixty-second  Congress,  their 
course  in  making  the  majority  members  of  the  Ways 
and  Mej.  ns  Committee  a  Committee  on  Committees 
has  served  to  make  Ways  and  Means  beyond  all 
question  the  most  important  committee  of  the  House 
and  its  chairman  the  actual  as  well  as  the  titular 
floor  leader. 

The  relative  importance  of  the  various  commit- 
tees varies  with  the  character  of  the  issues  before 
the  country.  When  the  tariff  question  is  uppermost 
the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  is  by  far  the  big- 
gest committee  in  the  House.  When  the  coinage 
question  was  uppermost  the  Committee  on  Coinage, 
Weights,  and  Measures  was  the  most  important  of 


BEARING  THE  MACE. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  REPEESENTATIVES    277 

them  all,  although  in  recent  years  it  has  had  almost 
nothing  to  do.  Twenty  years  ago  the  Committee  on 
Interstate  and  Foreign  Commerce  was  a  compara- 
tively unimportant  one.  Since  that  time  the  large 
number  of  problems  of  one  kind  and  another  affect- 
ing interstate-commerce  matters,  the  public  health, 
and  the  Panama  Canal  have  served  to  make  it  prob- 
ably the  most  important  legislative  committee  of  the 
House.  The  Committee  on  Post  Office  and  Post 
Eoads  has  increased  in  importance  so  rapidly  that 
it  now  ranks  as  one  of  the  "Big  Four"  committees 
— Ways  and  Means,  Appropriations,  Interstate  and 
Foreign  Commerce,  and  Post  Office  and  Post  Roads. 

New  Members  arriving  in  Washington  sometimes 
astonish  those  who  know  the  ropes  by  their  expres- 
sion of  preference  in  the  matter  of  committee  as- 
signments. Some  years  ago,  when  John  Sharp 
Williams  was  the  minority  leader  in  the  House,  a 
new  Member  came  out  of  Texas  who  said  he  had 
only  one  request  to  make  of  Mr.  Williams,  and  that 
was  that  he  be  permitted  to  become  a  member  of  the 
Committee  on  Railways  and  Canals.  He  was  told 
that  this  committee  had  next  to  nothing  to  do  and 
would  be  a  very  undesirable  assignment,  but  he  in- 
sisted that  that  committee  would  write  the  most  im- 
portant legislation  of  the  ensuing  decade  and  that 
he  wanted  to  be  one  of  its  members.  His  wish  was 
gratified,  but  from  that  day  to  this  the  Committee 
on  Railways  and  Canals  has  done  little  else  than 
organize  at  the  beginning  of  each  Congress. 

The  House  of  Representatives  requires  an  effi- 
cient staff  of  officials  and  clerks  to  serve  it.     The 


278       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Speaker  has  a  personal  staff  of  about  half  a  dozen 
clerks  and  messengers.  One  of  these  clerks  is  known 
as  the  clerk  at  the  Speaker's  table.  He  is  always 
an  expert  on  parliamentary  law  and  one  who  has 
the  precedents  of  the  House  procedure  ever  at  his 
finger  tips.  Under  the  Republican  Speakers  from 
1895  to  1911  this  position  was  held  by  Asher  C. 
Hinds,  of  Maine,  who  came  to  know  more  about 
House  procedure  than  any  other  man  in  the  country, 
and  his  compilation  of  House  Precedents,  published 
by  the  Government  Printing  Office  and  contained  in 
a  half  dozen  large  quarto  volumes,  is  the  most  ex- 
haustive compilation  of  parliamentary  law  in  the 
world.  Mr.  Hinds  was  elected  a  Member  of  the 
House  in  1910,  and,  the  Democrats  coming  into 
power,  he  was  succeeded  as  chief  parliamentarian 
by  Judge  Charles  R.  Crisp,  who  had  held  the  office 
before  when  his  father,  Charles  F.  Crisp,  was 
Speaker. 

The  House  has  a  Chaplain,  who  invokes  Divine 
guidance  for  its  deliberations  every  time  it  meets. 
For  years  this  Chaplain  has  been  a  minister  who 
is  blind  as  a  result  of  a  wound  received  in  the  Civil 
War.  He  is  a  Republican,  but  when  the  Democrats 
came  into  power  they  unanimously  agreed  that  he 
should  be  reelected. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  things  in  the  House 
is  the  mace,  the  emblem  of  its  authority.  If  a  Mem- 
ber refuses  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  Speaker  or  of 
the  House,  the  Speaker  orders  the  Sergeant  at  Arms 
to  bring  the  offender  to  order.  This  official  takes 
the  mace,  which  is  a  variation  of  the  old  Roman  sym- 


THE  HOUSE  OF  EEPRESENTATIVES    279 

bol  of  power — tlie  fasces  of  the  lictor — except  that 
a  silver  eagle  is  substituted  for  the  battle  ax,  and 
marches  to  the  seat  of  the  offender.  A  Member  al- 
ways dreads  a  visit  from  the  Sergeant  at  Arms 
bearing  the  mace  and  usually  subsides  before  it  is 
taken  from  its  pedestal  near  the  Speaker's  chair. 

The  House  has  its  own  post  office,  its  own  restau- ' 
rant,  a  folding  room  from  which  documents  are  sent 
out,  a  document  room  where  all  sorts  of  legislative 
documents  are  on  file,  and  other  facilities  which 
leave  nothing  to  be  desired  in  expediting  legislation. 
It  is  when  a  session  of  Congress  comes  to  a  close 
that  one  of  the  most  interesting  scenes  of  congres- 
sional activity  is  enacted.  For  several  days  before 
there  is  usually  a  great  crush  of  business  with  per- 
haps an  all-night  filibuster  on  top  of  it.  An  all- 
night  session  is  a  strenuous  affair  and  the  Members 
try  to  keep  awake  by  singing,  smoking,  telling  jokes, 
and  quarreling — in  fact,  everything  else  but  legis- 
lating. There  are  usually  some  rather  strong  can- 
didates for  operatic  honors  in  the  House  and  when 
they  sing  such  songs  as  ''We  Won't  Go  Home  Until 
Morning,"  ''For  He's  a  Jolly  Good  Fellow,"  "Old 
Kentucky  Home,"  and  "Old  Black  Joe,"  there  are 
high  times  in  the  House. 

The  House  of  Representatives  is  perhaps  the 
most  expensive  lawmaking  institution  in  the  world. 
Beginning  with  the  Sixty-third  Congress  the  annual 
expense  of  maintaining  it  will  approximate  $6,000,- 
000  a  year,  which  does  not  include  its  large  printing 
bill.  The  salaries  of  its  Members  aggregate  nearly 
three  and  a  half  million  dollars.    Each  Member  is 


280       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

allowed  $1,500  for  clerk  hire,  and  this  aggregates 
nearly  $700,000.  The  House  has  a  large  staff  of 
officers  and  clerks,  the  aggregate  of  whose  salaries 
is  more  than  $500,000.  There  are  other  items  to  be 
considered,  such  as  an  allowance  of  20  cents  for  each 
mile  traveled  by  each  Representative  in  coming  to 
his  duties  by  the  nearest  route,  stationery  bill,  etc., 
all  of  which  bring  the  total  cost  of  maintaining  the 
lower  branch  of  the  National  Legislature  well  up  to 
$6,000,000. 


XXII. 

THE  SENATE. 

The  Senate  of  the  United  States,  called  by  George 
Washing-ton  ''the  saucer  in  which  the  tea  of  the 
House  brew  is  cooled,"  is  a  legislative  body  differ- 
ing in  many  respects  from  any  other  in  the  world. 
It  is  the  most  powerful  factor  in  the  American  gov- 
ernmental machine.  There  are  things  which  the 
President  and  the  Senate  may  do  without  the  assent 
of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives ;  and  things  which 
the  House  and  the  Senate  may  do  without  the  assent 
of  the  President,  yet  the  President  and  the  House 
can  do  nothing  without  the  assent  of  the  Senate. 
The  Senate  is  vested  with  a  measure  of  all  of  the 
three  powers  of  the  Federal  Government — legisla- 
tive, executive,  and  judicial.  It  exercises  legislative 
power  as  one  of  the  branches  of  Congress  and  its 
concurrence  is  necessary  to  the  perfection  of  all 
kinds  of  legislation.  It  exercises  executive  power 
under  the  constitutional  mandate  requiring  its  ad- 
vice and  consent  to  make  the  nominations  of  the 
Federal  officers  by  the  President  effective.  It  is 
further  exercised  by  the  constitutional  requirement 
that  no  treaty  shall  become  effective  except  it  be 
ratified  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of   the  Senate.     The 

281 


282       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

judicial  power  of  the  Senate  arises  from  its  consti- 
tutional authority  to  sit  as  a  Court  of  Impeachment 
when  Federal  officers  are  tried  for  ' '  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanors." 

Without  the  advice  and  consent  of  a  majority  of 
the  Senate  no  Federal  officer  can  be  clothed  with  the 
authority  to  act  as  such.  Without  the  affirmative 
approval  of  a  two-thirds  majority  of  the  Senate  no 
treaty  negotiated  by  the  President  can  become  effect- 
ive. On  the  other  hand,  a  law  may  be  enacted  with- 
out the  approval  of  the  President  by  passing  it  over 
his  veto.  The  House  possesses  no  power  to  influ- 
ence the  Senate  or  the  President  in  matters  of  polit- 
ical appointment  or  treaty  relations,  and  a  treaty 
may  be  made  effective  without  the  slightest  consid- 
eration for  the  attitude  of  the  House,  and  once  rati- 
fied it  becomes  equal  in  authority  with  a  law  of  Con- 
gress. The  House  may  decide  to  impeach  the  Presi- 
dent, but  it  remains  for  the  Senate  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment, the  only  limitation  upon  this  power  of  judg- 
ment being  that  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  shall  sit  as  its  Presiding  Officer. 

Not  only  does  the  Senate  possess  powers  wider  in 
range  than  those  of  either  the  President  or  the 
House  of  Representatives,  but  these  powers  tend  to 
give  it  a  dignity  and  soberness  of  mind  not  in  evi- 
dence in  the  House.  One  needs  attend  only  a  day's 
session  of  the  two  branches  of  Congress  to  see  the 
difference  between  the  House  and  the  Senate.  In 
the  House  there  is  more  or  less  noise.  In  the  Sen- 
ate everything  is  conservative,  staid,  and  dignified. 
The  Hcase  will  permit  itaelf  to  be  photographed  on 


THE  SENATE  283 

special  occasions.  The  Senate  in  all  history  has 
never  succumbed  to  the  importunities  of  the  press 
photographer.  Upon  such  occasions  as  an  all-night 
session  or  adjournment  day  the  House  will  sing  it- 
self hoarse  while  in  recess.  The  Senate  would  be 
shocked  from  center  to  circumference  if  anyone  pre- 
sumed to  raise  his  voice  in  song  within  its  walls. 

A  few  years  ago  Senator  Tillman,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, was  addressing  the  Senate,  when  Senator  War- 
ren, of  Wyoming,  sitting  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
middle  aisle,  spied  a  bottle  in  the  pocket  of  the  South 
Carolinian.  He  drew  the  bottle  from  its  resting 
place,  took  out  the  cork,  smelled  of  it,  much  to  the 
amusement  of  the  galleries,  and  then  replaced  it. 
The  Senate  was  shocked  by  this  proceeding  and  such 
a  frigid  atmosphere  was  created  that  the  Senator 
from  Wyoming  has  never  given  vent  to  his  playful 
impulses  from  that  day  to  this.  Upon  another  occa- 
sion Senator  Tillman  made  a  speech  in  which  he 
likened  himself  to  the  interlocutor  in  a  minstrel 
show,  declaring  that  certain  other  Senators  were  the 
burntcork  artists  known  as  endmen,  and  that  ' '  Gum 
Shoe"  Bill  Stone  could  give  an  exhibition  of  walk- 
ing on  eggs  without  cracking  the  shells.  The  Sen- 
ate did  not  relish  this  speech,  although  individual 
Members  of  that  body  were  much  amused  by  it; 
Senator  Tillman  heard  from  various  sources  that 
the  Senate  did  not  enjoy  such  a  characterization  and 
as  a  result  he  declared  openly  that  in  the  future  he 
would  not  attempt  to  make  a  humorous  speech.  Such 
events  in  the  House  are  regarded  as  "happy  hits" 
and  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 


284       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

In  the  House  a  Member  desiring  to  make  a  speech 
often  has  to  beg  for  a  single  minute  in  which  to 
make  it.  In  the  Senate  there  is  no  limit  to  the  time 
a  Senator  may  talk,  except  that  imposed  by  his  own 
powers  of  endurance.  In  the  House  a  Member  may 
ask  leave  to  extend  his  remarks  in  the  Congressional 
Record  and  then  may  print  there  a  speech  not  a 
word  of  which  was  delivered  on  the  floor.  He  may 
even  go  so  far  as  to  place  in  his  printed  but  unde- 
livered speech  interpolations  such  as  "Applause," 
"Prolonged  applause,"  and  "Loud  and  continued 
applause,"  and  other  little  phrases  wherever  he 
thinks  they  ought  to  go.  It  is  true  that  only  a  few 
deluded  Members  carry  the  matter  thus  far.  But 
in  the  Senate  the  practice  of  extending  remarks  in 
the  Record  is  never  resorted  to,  and  the  cheap  prac- 
tice of  inserting  such  interpolations  as  those  above 
is  unheard  of. 

The  Senate  differs  from  the  House  as  widely  in 
its  rules  and  in  the  way  in  which  it  is  constituted  as 
it  does  in  the  character  of  its  proceedings.  The 
Senate  never  dies ;  one-third  of  the  Senators  go  out 
of  office  and  a  like  number  come  in  every  two  years, 
so  that  two-thirds  of  the  Senate  membership  is  al- 
ways in  office.  The  House  dies  every  two  years  and 
must  be  entirely  reorganized  at  the  beginning  of 
each  Congress.  There  is  a  sort  of  rivalry  between 
the  two  bodies,  each  asserting  itself  to  be  the  more 
powerful  and  each  occasionally  pointing  the  finger 
of  ridicule  at  the  other  on  account  of  the  difference 
in  procedure. 

The  rules  of  both  the  Senate  and  the  House  posi- 


THE   SENATE  285 

tively  prohibit  any  Member  of  either  body  to  speak 
disrespectfully  of  the  other  body,  and  yet  Senators 
frequently  point  out  that  the  rule  in  the  House  is 
little  more  than  mob  rule,  while  Members  of  the 
House  as  often  declare  that  senatorial  courtesy  is 
carried  to  such  lengths  that  one  man  may  thwart  the 
will  of  more  than  ninety. 

Yet  each  body  is  proud  of  its  distinguishing  fea- 
tures. The  House  could  not  be  induced  to  give  up 
its  right  to  cut  off  debate  whenever  it  desires  to  do 
so,  and  the  Senate  has  never  found  provocation 
strong  enough  to  induce  it  to  curtail  the  right  of  un- 
limited debate.  Legislation  in  the  Senate  is  enacted 
largely  on  the  principle  of  unanimous  consent.  In 
practice  the  Senate  never  agrees  to  set  a  date  for  a 
vote  in  the  future  except  by  unanimous  consent. 

The  principle  that  every  Senator  is  entitled  to 
speak  as  long  as  he  desires,  and  that  no  motion  can 
take  away  from  him  the  right  to  the  floor  until  he 
is  ready  to  yield  it,  has  produced  the  unique  sena- 
torial filibuster.  A  Senator  in  the  minority  at  the 
end  of  his  speech  may  yield  the  floor,  and  as  long  as 
another  of  the  opposition  succeeds  in  following  him 
they  are  able  to  protract  the  debate  and  prevent  a 
vote.  Senators  engaged  in  a  filibuster  have  long 
odds  over  those  attempting  to  put  it  down.  Three 
or  four  strong-lunged  Senators  on  guard  in  the  in- 
terest of  a  filibuster  can  usually  maintain  debate  so 
long  that  it  wears  out  the  efforts  of  the  majority  to 
maintain  a  quorum,  and  to  bring  the  issue  to  a  vote, 
or  to  a  compromise. 

According  to  tradition  in  the  Senate  there  shall 


286       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

not  be  any  hindrance  on  free  and  full  debate.  This 
freedom  of  debate  has  been  used  by  individual  Sena- 
tors for  the  purpose  of  blocking  legislation  to  which 
they  were  opposed,  especially  toward  the  end  of  a 
Congress  which  expires  biennially  by  limitation  on 
March  4.  Thus  former  Senator  Carter,  of  Montana, 
once  defeated  a  river  and  harbor  bill  by  talking  it 
to  death,  the  late  Senator  Clay,  of  Georgia,  made  a 
lengthy  and  successful  filibuster  on  a  statehood  bill, 
the  Democrats  of  the  Senate  successfully  filibus- 
tered against  the  famous  ''Force  Bill,"  and  Senator 
Tillman,  of  South  Carolina,  successfully  insisted 
upon  an  appropriation  for  a  claim  in  favor  of  his 
State  which  had  been  repeatedly  disallowed. 

In  1908  Senator  La  Follette,  of  Wisconsin,  and 
several  other  opponents  of  the  Mdrich  currency  bill 
started  a  filibuster  against  the  passage  of  the  con- 
ference report  on  that  measure.  Every  technicality 
was  utilized  for  the  purpose  of  consuming  time. 
The  question  of  "no  quorum"  was  repeatedly 
raised  and  the  session  which  began  at  noon  on  May 
29  sat  for  some  30  hours.  This  brought  about  the 
resurrection  of  an  ancient  rule  whereby  Members 
could  be  compelled  to  vote  or  to  give  a  good  reason 
therefor.  Under  this  rule  the  Vice  President 
counted  a  quorum  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  major- 
ity of  the  Members  of  the  Senate  had  not  voted. 
The  Senate  also  determined  upon  that  occasion  that 
the  question  of  ''no  quorum"  could  not  be  raised 
when  a  previous  roll  call  had  disclosed  the  presence 
of  a  quorum,  if  no  business  had  intervened,  and  it 
was  held  that  the  debate  did  not  constitute  inter- 


THE   SENATE  287 

vening  business.  A  loijg  dormant  rule  which  pro- 
hibited any  Senator  from  addressing  the  Senate 
upon  any  question  more  than  twice  in  any  one  legis- 
lative day  was  resurrected  as  a  means  of  putting 
down  the  filibuster.  One-man  filibusters  usually 
take  place  at  the  very  close  of  a  session  of  Congress, 
and  upon  these  occasions  some  champion  long-dis- 
tance speeches  are  delivered. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  filibuster  ever  conducted, 
and  one  which  gripped  the  attention  of  the  entire 
country,  was  the  one  against  the  "Force  Bill"  in 
Harrison's  administration.  The  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives had  passed  the  bill,  and  the  Republicans 
were  very  anxious  that  it  become  a  law.  When  it 
came  to  the  Senate,  the  Democrats  started  in  to 
fight  it  tooth  and  nail.  The  Republicans  knew  that 
if  they  could  force  the  bill  to  a  vote  they  had  the 
necessary  majority  to  pass  it.  The  Dejiocrats 
realized  that  the  only  way  they  could  prevent  the 
passage  of  the  measure  and  its  approval  by  the 
President  would  be  to  keep  it  from  coming  to  a  vote. 
The  Republicans  decided  that  they  would  insist  upon 
fixing  a  time  for  a  vote,  and  to  do  so  they  were  will- 
ing to  break  the  precedents  of  a  century  and  vote  a 
cloture,  and  they  attempted  thus  to  cut  off  the  right 
of  unlimited  debate.  They  found  that  some  of 
their  own  members,  while  extremely  anxious  to  pass 
the  ''Force  Bill,"  were  not  willing  to  do  so  at  the 
price  of  breaking  this  time-honored  precedent. 

The  late  Senator  Quay,  of  Pennsylvania,  heartily 
disliked  President  Harrison,  and  his  support  of  the 
Democratic  filibuster  turned  the  tide  an^  defeated 


288       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

the  bill.  There  have  been  many  times  when  the 
Senate  majority,  impatient  with  a  filibustering  mi- 
nority, has  advocated  the  curtailment  of  the  right 
of  unlimited  debate,  but  as  soon  as  the  members  of 
that  majority  found  themselves  in  the  minority 
they  in  turn  have  been  the  firmest  supporters  of  that 
right.  It  is  probable  that  the  Senate  never  will  re- 
cede from  its  ancient  position  of  never  fixing  a  fu- 
ture date  for  voting  upon  any  issue  without  unani- 
mous consent. 

The  Presiding  Officer  of  the  Senate  is  the  Vice 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  is  elected  by 
the  people  and  has  no  powers  in  the  Senate  save  to 
preside  over  its  deliberations,  and  to  cast  the  de- 
ciding vote  in  case  of  a  tie.  Since  the  Senate  has 
no  choice  in  the  selection  of  its  regular  Presiding 
Officer,  it  is  careful  to  hedge  about  his  position  with 
rules  which  do  not  permit  him  to  dominate  its  delib- 
erations. He  is  required  by  the  rules  of  the  Senate 
to  recognize  the  first  speaker  who  addresses  the 
chair. 

When  a  new  Congress  meets  every  second  year, 
the  newly  elected  Members  of  the  Senate  are  es- 
corted to  the  Vice  President's  desk,  where  he  admin- 
isters to  them  the  oath  of  office.  They  have  re- 
ceived their  credentials  from  the  legislatures  of  the 
States  they  represent,  and  these  are  filed  among  the 
records  of  the  Senate.  Only  one  Senator  from 
each  State  comes  in  at  one  time,  except  under  ex- 
traordinary circumstances,  and  his  colleague  is 
expected  to  escort  him  to  the  desk  of  the  Vice  Presi- 
dent for  the  administration  of  the  oath.    As  a  rule 


THE   SENATE  289 

Senators  extend  this  courtesy  to  their  incoming  col- 
leagues, even  though  there  have  been  strenuous 
political  differences  between  them.  Occasionally, 
however,  the  incoming  Senator  and  the  continuing 
Senator  are  bitter  enemies,  personal  as  well  as 
political,  and  refuse  to  extend  this  courtesy.  When 
Senator  Clarke,  of  Arkansas,  took  the  oath  of  office 
Senator  Berry  refused  to  escort  him. 

The  Senate  is  a  great  stickler  for  its  traditions. 
Back  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Republic  snuff  tak- 
ing was  popular,  and  for  a  w^hile  the  snuffbox  was 
kept  on  the  desk  of  the  Presiding  OflQcer.  Henry 
Clay  was  a  great  snuff  taker,  and  would  frequently 
pause  in  his  speeches  to  inhale  a  bit  of  the  tobacco 
dust.  To  this  day  snuffboxes  are  maintained  in  the 
Senate,  and,  remarkable  as  it  may  seem,  they  are 
frequently  replenished  with  a  fresh  supply  of  snuff. 
Senators  sometimes  carry  personal  peculiarities 
into  the  Senate  Chamber.  Sam  Houston,  of  Texas, 
was  a  confirmed  whittler,  and  every  morning  he  had 
a  little  bundle  of  pine  sticks  brought  into  the  Sen- 
ate Chamber.  If  matters  in  which  he  was  deeply 
interested  were  pending,  his  whittling  would  take 
the  form  of  simply  making  shavings ;  if  the  matters 
in  w^hich  he  had  no  interest  were  pending  he  would 
carve  out  little  boats,  animals,  and  other  designs 
and  present  them  to  his  friends.  Senator  Charles 
Sunmer  had  a  habit  of  pulling  the  pages '  ears.  Upon 
one  occasion  he,  in  a  moment  of  abstraction,  caught 
a  page  by  the  ear  and  proceeded  to  march  him  up 
and  down  the  Senate  aisle.  The  Senator  was  called 
and  the  boy,  who  is  to-day  a  business  man  in  New 


290       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

York,  declares  that  he  still  has  a  vivid  recollection 
of  the  acute  suffering  he  underwent  before  he  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  Mr.  Sumner  to  a  realization  of 
what  he  was  doing.  Alabama  once  sent  a  man  to 
the  United  States  Senate  who  was  so  large  that  an 
extra-sized  chair  and  desk  had  to  be  provided  fori 
him,  although  those  in  common  use  will  seat  com- 
fortably a  man  of  more  than  200  pounds.  The  pe- 
culiarities of  Senators  of  bygone  days  find  little 
counterpart  in  the  Senate  of  more  recent  years. 

The  Senate  has  frequent  secret  sessions,  usually 
for  the  consideration  of  executive  business,  during 
which  the  public  is  rigidly  excluded  and  a  great 
effort  is  made  to  maintain  absolute  secrecy  as  to  the 
proceedings.  However,  the  newspaper  men  who 
constitute  the  corps  of  Washington  correspondents 
always  have  intimate  friends  among  the  Senators, 
and  it  is  next  to  impossible  for  the  Senate  to  keep 
the  secrets  of  its  secret  sessions.  It  goes  into  ex- 
ecutive session  for  the  purpose  of  considering  nomi- 
nations sent  in  by  the  President,  and  also  for  the 
consideration  of  treaties.  Of  course  it  would  be  im- 
possible for  the  Senate  to  fully  and  freely  discuss 
grave  international  matters  in  the  open,  without  giv- 
ing rise  to  complications  with  other  Governments. 

It  is  popularly  supposed  that  younger  men  are 
beiug  elected  to  the  Senate  to-day  than  formerly. 
The  Constitution  requires  that  a  Senator  be  at  least 
30  years  of  age,  9  years  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  and  an  inhabitant  of  the  State  from  which  he 
is  elected.  It  is  very  seldom  that  the  constitutional 
age  limit  is  even  approached,  the  average  Senator 


THE   SENATE  291 

being  upward  of  40  years  of  age  at  the  time  he  is 
chosen.  There  have  been  cases,  however,  when 
Senators  have  come  into  office  at  an  age  barely  qual- 
ifying them  for  service  in  the  Senate.  Henry  Clay 
was  one  of  these,  and  Luke  Lea,  of  Tennessee,  is  an- 
other. The  length  of  service  of  Senators  is  greater 
to-day  than  it  was  before  the  Civil  War.  When 
Thomas  H.  Benton,  of  Missouri,  had  served  30 
years  in  the  Senate  it  gave  him  the  longest  term  in 
Congress  that  had  been  enjoyed  by  any  Member  of 
either  House.  Since  the  Civil  War  many  Members 
of  both  the  Senate  and  the  House  have  served  longer 
than  Benton,  some  of  them  having  40  years  of  serv- 
ice to  their  credit. 

Being  so  much  smaller  in  membership  than  the 
House,  it  is  natural  that  the  Senate  can  afford  its 
Members  more  comforts  and  conveniences  than  are 
enjoyed  by  the  Members  of  the  House.  While  each 
Member  of  the  House  has  one  room  in  the  House 
Office  Building,  each  Member  of  the  Senate  has  two 
and  sometimes  three  large  rooms.  Nearly  every 
Senator  has  the  chairmanship  of  some  committee, 
and  this  entitles  him  to  the  services  of  two  or  three 
assistants. 

The  Senate  and  House  have  placed  splendid  facil- 
ities at  the  disposal  of  the  press.  The  galleries 
back  of  the  chairs  of  the  presiding  officers  of  the 
two  Houses  are  reserved  exclusively  for  the  200  rep- 
resentatives of  the  big  newspapers  of  the  country 
who  belong  to  the  corps  of  Washington  correspond- 
ents. Back  of  each  of  these  galleries  are  several 
large  rooms  which  are  for  the  exclusive  use  of  the 


292       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

members  of  the  press.  One  of  these  is  a  telegraph 
room  where  the  press  matter  of  the  day's  doings  is 
sent  out.  Another  is  the  writing  room,  in  addition 
to  which  there  are  lounging  and  retiring  rooms. 
Only  newspaper  men  whose  credentials  have  been 
passed  upon  by  a  standing  committee  of  correspond- 
ents are  eligible  to  press  gallery  membership.  Each 
gallery  is  presided  over  by  a  superintendent  and 
several  assistants,  who  do  all  they  can  to  aid  the 
correspondents  in  getting  the  news  of  Congress  to 
the  90,000,000  people  it  represents.  The  superin- 
tendent of  the  Senate  Press  Gallery  is  James  D. 
Preston  and  of  the  House  Gallery  Charles  H.  Mann. 


XXHL 
THE  LIBEAEY  OF  CONGEESS, 

Housed  in  the  finest  building  of  its  kind  in  the 
world,  possessing  the  third  largest  collection  of 
books  and  pamphlets  ever  assembled,  containing  the 
world's  greatest  collection  of  maps,  and  centering 
its  activities  along  lines  which  will  make  it  in  the 
future  a  great  national  institution,  uniting  all  of  the 
great  libraries  in  the  country  into  one  huge  system 
of  book  depositories  in  which  the  treasures  of  all 
will  be  available  to  the  student  at  any  one  of  them, 
the  Library  of  Congress  is  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant monuments  to  literature  in  the  world. 

The  Library  Building  is  the  creation  of  American 
architects,  sculptors,  and  painters  exclusively.  Not 
only  is  it  a  beautiful  structure  outside  and  inside, 
but  it  is  the  best-designed  building  in  the  world  for 
library  purposes  such  as  it  is  intended  to  serve.  One 
may  get  an  idea  of  how  accessible  are  the  books  on 
its  shelves  from  the  statement  that  it  requires  only 
15  minutes  to  procure  any  desired  book  in  the  Con- 
gressional Library.  Situated  in  the  center  of  a  10- 
acre  plat  of  ground,  and  covering  more  than  4  acres 
of  this,  the  Library  is  one  of  the  best-lighted  build- 
ings in  the  world.    It  is  built  in  the  shape  of  a  large 

293 


294       THE  AMEEICAN  GOVERNMENT 

square,  inclosing  a  great  central  court,  which  is  cut 
up  into  sections  by  bookstacks  radiating  from  a  ro- 
tunda in  the  center  of  the  square.  It  has  more  than 
2,000  windows,  is  three  stories  high,  and  the  central 
rotunda  is  surmounted  by  a  magnificent  gold-cov- 
ered dome.  No  other  building  in  America  and  few 
in  the  entire  world  are  so  elaborately  decorated 
with  sculptures  and  mural  paintings,  and  these  pos- 
sess a  merit  that  commands  praise  from  every  critic. 

The  main  reading  room  of  the  Library  is  100  feet 
in  diameter  and  125  feet  from  the  floor  to  the  dome. 
It  is  furnished  in  mahogany,  and  has  a  seating  ca- 
pacity of  290. 

"When  a  reader  comes  into  the  reading  room  he 
fills  out  an  application  card,  giving  the  name  of  the 
book  he  desires,  and,  if  he  is  familiar  with  the  use 
of  the  Library  Catalogue,  the  Library  number  of 
the  book  and  the  name  of  the  author.  He  signs  his 
name  to  the  card  and  writes  on  it  the  number  of  the 
desk  he  intends  to  use.  He  then  gives  the  card  to 
an  attendant  at  the  central  desk.  This  attendant 
knows  exactly  on  what  deck,  or  floor,  of  what  book- 
stack  the  desired  book  is  kept.  A  pneumatic-tube 
system  connects  the  reading  room  with  the  various 
decks  of  the  bookstacks,  just  as  the  cashier's  office 
in  a  big  department  store  is  connected  with  the 
various  counters  of  the  store.  The  attendant  at  the 
central  desk  puts  the  card  into  a  little  sole-leather 
case  and  that  in  turn  into  the  tube. 

By  pulling  a  lever  the  card  is  started  on  its  jour- 
ney to  the  attendant  on  the  deck  where  the  desired 
book  is  kept.    A  bell  is  also  rung,  and  this  calls  the 


THE   LIBRAEY   OF    CONGRESS        295 

deck  attendant  to  tlie  tube  station.  He  takes  out 
the  card,  and  tlie  number  on  it  tells  him  exactly 
where  the  book  is  located.  Usually  he  is  familiar 
enough  with  the  majority  of  books  called  for  to  find 
them  without  even  the  number.  If  there  is  no  num- 
ber on  the  card  and  he  can  not  locate  it  mthout  the 
number,  he  consults  a  card  catalogue  of  the  books 
on  his  desk,  and  is  thus  able  to  find  the  book. 

When  he  gets  the  book  he  places  it  on  a  rack  and 
pulls  a  lever.  A  specially  designed  book  carrier 
consists  of  18  brass  book  baskets,  mounted  on  an 
endless  double  chain.  This  book  carrier  starts  in 
the  reading  room  and  goes  down  vertically  to  a 
point  below  the  level  of  the  basement.  Here  it 
passes  around  a  wheel  and  travels  through  a  tunnel 
in  a  horizontal  direction  to  the  center  of  the  book- 
stack.  Here  it  passes  around  another  wheel  and 
travels  upward  again  to  the  top  of  the  stack,  where 
it  passes  around  a  third  wheel  and  returns  by  the 
same  route.  The  carrier  travels  at  a  speed  of  a 
hundred  feet  a  minute.  When  the  stack  attendant 
has  placed  the  book  on  the  rack  and  pulled  the  lever^ 
the  next  carrier  basket  which  comes  along  auto- 
matically lifts  the  book  out  of  the  rack  and  carries  it 
down  beneath  the  ground  and  then  up  again  into  the 
reading  room,  where  it  is  automatically  discharged 
into  a  cushioned  box  at  the  central  desk. 

When  the  attendant  in  the  reading  room  wishes 
to  return  the  book  to  the  stack,  the  carrier  is  so  ar- 
ranged that  it  can  be  sent  to  the  proper  deck  simply 
by  pulling  a  certain  lever.  The  basket  containing 
the  book  will  pass  every  other  deck  and  will  never 


296       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

deposit  its  burden  except  at  the  right  place.  This 
carrier  seems  almost  to  possess  human  intelligence, 
refusing  to  carry  books  in  any  way  that  might  in- 
jure them  in  transit.  In  practice,  nearly  all  of  the 
books  are  sent  from  the  stacks  to  the  central  read- 
ing room  by  this  carrier,  but  as  a  rule  they  are  sent 
back  by  a  messenger,  on  a  large  book  truck. 

Each  of  the  bookstacks  consists  of  from  9  to  10 
stories,  with  a  series  of  cast-iron  frames  supporting 
tiers  and  shelves.  The  largest  stacks  are  65  feet 
high.  The  shelves  are  of  cold-rolled  steel,  and  are 
finished  as  smooth  as  glass.  The  stacks  are  lighted 
by  large  windows  of  plate  glass,  which  are  attached 
directly  to  the  window  frame  in  such  a  way  as  to 
make  them  dust  and  damp  tight.  There  are  no 
sashes  in  these  windows,  and  they  are  never  opened. 
As  bright  sunshine  is  harmful  to  books,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  have  an  arrangement  which  will  at  all  times 
admit  light  and  yet  keep  out  the  direct  sunlight. 
Of  course  it  would  be  a  difficult  task  to  open  and 
shut  200  window  shades  every  time  the  sun  seeks  to 
enter,  so  it  has  been  arranged  that  they  can  all  be 
shut  or  opened  simultaneously  by  a  hydraulic  appa- 
ratus operated  by  pressing  a  button. 

At  the  outset  there  were  three  stacks  possessing 
a  total  of  44  miles  of  book  shelves,  with  a  capacity 
of  approximately  2,000,000  volumes.  Since  that 
time  another  stack  has  been  built,  which  adds  an- 
other million  volumes  to  the  capacity  of  the  Library. 
It  is  arranged  so  that  still  other  stacks  may  be 
added,  and  the  ultimate  capacity  will  be  more  than 
4,000,000  volumes,  counting  9  volumes  to  the  foot. 


THE   LIBEARY   OF    CONGRESS        297 

This  would  make  a  single  row  of  books  more  than  a 
hundred  miles  long.  The  new  stack,  which  was  built 
a  few  years  ago,  is  equipped  with  some  facilities  not 
possessed  by  the  others.  One  of  these  is  a  unique 
provision  for  economy  in  the  use  of  electricity  for 
lighting  purposes.  At  every  other  shelf  there  is  a 
push  button,  by  which  the  attendant  may  turn  on 
the  light  for  one  passageway.  This  continues  to 
burn  for  about  six  minutes,  and  then  the  lights  are 
automatically  cut  out.  If  the  attendant  wishes  ta 
stay  longer  he  must  press  the  button  again.  There 
is  an  underground  book  railway  leading  directly 
from  the  Library  to  a  station  in  the  Capitol.  This 
runs  through  a  brick  tunnel,  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
long.  There  is  an  ondless  chain  to  which  book  trays 
are  attached,  and  they  make  the  trip  from  the  Li- 
brary to  the  Capitol  in  from  two  to  three  minutes. 
Members  of  the  House  and  Senate  and  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  and  the  officials  of  these  bodies,  have 
the  privilege  of  drawing  books  from  the  Library, 
and  of  having  them  sent  to  their  offices,  to  the  Capi- 
tol,  or  to  their  homes. 

It  is  one  of  the  cherished  ideas  of  the  present 
Librarian  of  Congress  that  the  Library  shall  be 
made  a  great  national  institution,  which  will  unlock 
all  of  the  treasures  of  the  literary  world  to  the  seri- 
ous students  of  the  United  States.  Although  the 
greatest  library  in  the  Western  Hemisphere,  there 
are  still  many  works  lacking  from  the  collections  of 
the  Library  of  Congress.  The  same  is  true  of  every 
other  library  in  America.  Not  one  of  them  has  a 
complete  collection.    But  what  one  of  them  lacks 


298       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

another  possesses,  and  by  a  properly  organized  sys- 
tem of  cooperation  tliey  may  make  available  for  all 
of  them  every  book  possessed  by  any  one  of  them. 
Such  a  system  of  cooperation  will  give  to  the  United 
States  a  library  service  superior  to  that  of  any 
other  coimtry  in  the  world.  The  Federal  Govern- 
ment has  other  libraries  than  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress, and  they  make  Uncle  Sam  the  owner  of  more 
than  3,000,000  volumes.  Each  of  the  principal  de- 
partments and  bureaus  of  the  Government  main- 
tains a  special  library  dealing  with  the  subjects  with 
which  it  is  principally  concerned.  For  instance,  the 
Bureau  of  Education  has  the  world's  best  library  on 
educational  matters;  the  Bureau  of  Fisheries  has 
the  finest  library  in  existence  on  aquatic  life;  the 
Bureau  of  Standards  possesses  a  magnificent  library 
on  scientific  subjects;  and  the  library  of  the  oflSce 
of  the  Surgeon  General  of  the  United  States  Army 
is  regarded  as  the  greatest  medical  library  in  the 
world.  Already  such  a  system  of  cooperation  has 
been  established  between  these  various  libraries 
that  they  are  practically  one  so  far  as  research 
work  is  concerned. 

The  first  step  necessary  to  a  full  realization  of 
the  high  purpose  to  coordinate  the  library  work  of 
the  country  will  be  the  making  of  a  complete  card 
index  of  each  publication  to  be  found  in  the  libraries 
of  the  country.  This  will  cover  many  million  cards, 
as  each  book  requires  an  average  of  five  cards  to 
properly  index  it,  with  the  appropriate  cross  refer- 
ences. This  index  will  show  in  what  libraries  the 
rarer  works  may  be  had,  and  application  to  any 


THE   LIBRARY   OF   CONGRESS        299 

library  by  a  serious  student  will  make  it  available, 
even  though  it  has  come  from  the  most  distant  cor- 
ner of  the  country.  When  this  movement  for  the 
nationalization  of  the  Library  of  Congress  is  real- 
ized America  will  be  ahead  of  any  other  nation  in 
library  matters.  Already  Mr.  Herbert  Putnam,  the 
Librarian  of  Congress,  has  placed  his  ideas  into 
partial  operation  and  with  the  most  signal  success. 

The  Library  of  Congress  lends  freely  to  other 
libraries,  and  even  deposits  with  them,  for  long 
periods,  such  material  as  they  may  require  in  their 
work,  they  paying  the  transportation  charges.  It 
also  invites  other  libraries  to  use  its  bibliograpliic 
service,  and  is  ready  at  all  times  to  furnish  refer- 
ence lists  and  aids  to  specific  research.  The  bibli- 
ographers, who  prepare  lists  of  all  works  bearing 
on  a  given  subject,  render  an  important  service. 
Whenever  any  subject  becomes  of  general  interest 
to  the  public  a  bibliography  is  prepared  and  made 
available  for  general  use. 

Without  losing  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  Library 
was  founded  for  Congress  by  Congress,  and  that  the 
lawmakers  have  the  first  claim  upon  its  attention, 
the  Librarian  is  seeking  in  every  way  to  extend  the 
scope  and  usefulness  of  its  work.  The  card-index 
system  which  has  been  established,  and  the  plan  of 
printing  duplicate  cards  for  gratuitous  distribution 
to  the  various  other  governmental  libraries,  and  at 
cost  to  other  libraries,  have  proved  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  library  worker.  It  costs  from  25  to  50 
cents  per  volume  to  catalogue  library  books  and 
from  15  to  30  cents  to  print  the  cards.    It  requires 


300       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

no  more  time  or  expense  to  catalogue  a  book  for  all 
of  the  libraries  of  the  country  tban  for  one,  and 
duplicate  cards,  after  the  work  of  the  cataloging 
has  been  completed,  are  very  inexpensive.  It  is  ex- 
actly as  in  the  case  of  a  book.  The  cost  of  author- 
ship and  composition  is  as  much  for  an  edition  of  a 
hundred  as  for  an  edition  of  a  hundred  thousand. 
More  than  a  thousand  libraries  are  now  using  the 
cataloging  service  of  the  Library  of  Congress  and 
the  number  of  subscribers  is  increasing  at  the  rate 
of  about  16  per  cent  a  year.  There  are  several 
grades  of  cards  and  the  lowest  grade  full  set 
brought  down  to  date  may  be  had  for  about  $200. 

As  the  low-grade  manila  cards  take  up  so  much 
less  space,  requiring  only  about  three-fifths  as  much 
as  the  best  cards,  they  are  often  preferred  to  the 
others.  Some  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  index- 
ing and  classification  work  of  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress may  be  had  from  the  statement  that,  if  a  book 
index  of  the  material  on  its  shelves  were  to  be 
printed,  it  would  require  15  years  to  complete  the 
job,  at  a  cost  of  nearly  a  half  million  dollars.  Some 
time  in  the  future  this  may  be  undertaken,  but  the 
ever-growing  list  of  material  received  makes  such  a 
publication  almost,  if  not  entirely,  impracticable. 
The  collections  of  the  Library  are  growing  at  the 
rate  of  nearly  100,000  books  a  year,  and  are  ap- 
proaching the  2,000,000  mark.  Only  the  National 
Library  of  France  and  that  of  the  British  Museum 
have  larger  collections. 

There  are  a  number  of  divisions  in  the  Library. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  of  these  is  that  of  Music. 


THE   LIBRARY   OF   CONGRESS       301 

It  lias  more  than  half  a  million  pieces  of  music  in 
sheet  form,  together  with  thousands  of  volumes  of 
,  bound  scores,  as  well  as  general  musical  literature. 
The  development  of  the  collection  under  expert  ad- 
vice during  the  past  decade  has  made  it  one  of  the 
most  famous  collections  in  the  world.  It  includes, 
for  instance,  nearly  2,000  scores  of  modern  operas, 
and  more  than  12,000  opera  texts.  The  aim  of  the 
Music  Division  has  been  to  encourage  and  aid  seri- 
ous research,  and  it  has  sought,  therefore,  the  full 
orchestral  scores  of  any  orchestral  composition 
rather  than  a  piano  or  other  merely  popular  ar- 
rangement. 

Another  interesting  division  is  the  Map  and 
Chart  Division,  whose  official  head  declares  it  to 
possess  the  greatest  and  most  satisfactorily  indexed 
collection  of  maps  and  charts  in  the  world.  The 
British  Museum  has  a  larger  collection,  but  the 
maps  in  it  are  by  no  means  as  accessible  as  those 
of  the  Library  of  Congress.  It  has  more  than  a 
hundred  thousand  maps  in  sheet  form,  as  well  as  an 
extraordinary  collection  of  atlases. 

The  collection  of  prints  is  also  a  large  one,  and 
many  of  these  are  of  rare  historical  value.  There 
is  an  especially  excellent  collection  of  prints  and 
portraits  of  the  public  men  of  the  United  States, 
particularly  the  Presidents.  In  these  collections 
one  may  see  rare  pictures  of  the  Father  of  His 
Country  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  others  of  Roosevelt 
pitching  hay  at  Oyster  Bay  and  Taft  playing  golf 
at  Chevy  Chase. 

Another  interesting  division  of  the  Library  is 


302       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

that  of  Manuscripts.  Here  one  may  see  the  papers 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  and  of  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  and  others,  transferred  from 
the  State  Department,  together  with  various  collec- 
tions, the  results  of  gifts  as  well  as  of  purchases, 
which  are  now  indispensable  to  students  of  Amer- 
ican history  in  search  of  original  material.  The 
total  number  of  pieces  in  the  collection  can  not  be 
stated  with  precision,  but  one  single  small  group 
contains  a  hundred  thousand  pieces. 

The  Library  of  Congress  is  a  library  of  record  as 
well  as  of  research,  and  it  has  aimed  to  make  its 
collections  bear  testimony  on  any  question  concern- 
ing which  the  Government  or  the  people  may  need 
information.  Its  usefulness  in  this  direction  may 
be  illustrated  in  a  thousand  ways.  For  instance,  in 
the  sixties,  25  head  of  cattle  were  driven  from  a 
Texas  ranch.  Eye-witnesses  swore  that  they  were 
driven  50  miles  to  the  left  of  Twin  Mountain.  Twin 
Mountain  was  not  located  on  any  map  available  to 
the  Court  of  Claims.  If  the  cattle  were  driven  to 
one  side  of  T\vin  Mountain,  they  were  driven  by 
friendly  Apaches,  and  the  Government  would  have 
to  pay  for  them.  If  they  were  driven  to  the  other 
side,  they  were  driven  by  hostile  Comanches  and  the 
Government  was  under  no  obligations  to  reimburse 
the  owner.  An  atlas  of  1867  on  file  in  the  Library 
of  Congress  was  resurrected  and  it  laid  the  offense 
at  the  door  of  the  Comanches. 

The  venerable  and  lamented  Ainsworth  R.  Spof- 
ford,  under  whose  administration  the  Library  was 
built,  and  to  whose  memory  it  always  will  be  a  mon- 


THE  LIBRARY    OF    CONGRESS        303 

ument,  once  said  that  there  should  never  be  a  censor 
in  the  republic  of  books.  He  asserted  that  no  man 
could  tell  what  portion  of  the  trash  of  to-day  would 
be  the  treasure  of  to-morrow.  A  file  of  the  Charles- 
ton Courier,  bought  for  a  considerable  sum,  has  been 
widely  used  to  determine  the  question  of  loyalty  in 
the  case  of  those  who  make  claims  for  reimburse- 
ment for  property  destroyed  by  Federal  troops  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War.  In  a  hundred  ways  the  Library 
as  a  library  of  record  is  invaluable  to  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  people. 

The  Copyright  OflSce  is  now  a  part  of  the  Library 
of  Congress.  Here  every  book,  pamphlet,  and  other 
literary  production  protected  by  the  copyright  laws 
of  the  United  States  is  registered,  and  two  copies  are 
filed  for  the  use  of  the  Library.  Of  course,  not 
everything  that  is  published  is  copyrighted,  and  con- 
sequently the  Library  misses  some  very  important 
publications  which  are  needed  to  make  its  collections 
complete,  but  for  the  acquisition  of  which  there  is 
no  provision,  except  by  purchase. 


XXIV. 
THE  GOVEENMENT  FEINTING  OFFICE. 

The  United  States  has  the  largest  and  finest 
printing  office  in  the  world.  It  represents  an  expen- 
diture of  more  than  $16,000,000  for  construction  and 
equipment,  and  an  annual  expenditure  of  more  than 
$6,000,000  for  maintenance  and  operation.  A  thou- 
sand different  important  books  and  pamphlets  are 
published  by  it  every  year,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
large  number  and  variety  of  circulars,  bills,  and 
other  small  jobs  which  go  to  make  up  the  year's 
work  of  the  Government  Printing  Office.  It  issues 
daily  and  weekly  journals,  monthly  periodicals,  and 
a  large  number  of  yearly  publications.  These  range 
in  frequency  and  importance,  from  the  daily  Con- 
gressional Eecord  to  the  annual  reports  of  small 
bureau  officials,  and  in  subject-matter  from  an  ab- 
stract report  of  the  Bureau  of  Standards  upon  the 
standardization  of  pyrometers  to  a  horse  book  by 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  or  a  Jefferson's 
Bible  by  the  authority  of  Congress. 

The  aggregate  work  of  the  Government  Printing 
Office  during  a  single  year  is  vast  in  its  proportions. 
In  1910  it  set  up  more  than  a  million  pages  of  type, 

305 


306       THE  AMERICAN  GOVEENMENT 

and  printed  nearly  3,000,000,000  pa.s^es  of  matter,  to 
say  nothing  of  nearly  700,000,000  blanks,  schedules, 
cards,  etc.,  72,000,000  letterheads  and  envelopes,  and 
other  things  in  proportion.  Nearly  a  million  and  a 
half  copies  of  various  publications  were  bound.  The 
composition  costs  were  nearly  $2,000,000. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  every  known  practicable 
labor-saving  device  is  used  at  the  Government 
Printing  Office,  more  than  $4,000,000  a  year  is  paid 
out  in  wages,  and  it  requires  more  than  $300,000  a 
year  to  pay  for  the  extra  help  required  when  the 
regular  force  goes  on  its  vacation.  It  requires 
more  than  a  million  dollars*  worth  of  j^aper  and  up- 
ward of  $600,000  worth  of  other  material  for  a 
year 's  operation  at  the  big  printing  office.  In  a  sin- 
gle month  it  was  able  to  turn  out  156,000,000  postal 
cards.  One  begins  to  appreciate  the  immensity  of 
the  plant  when  he  considers  how  great  are  the  little 
things  on  its  bill  of  expenses.  The  annual  soap  sup- 
ply costs  $2,000,  while  $23  worth  of  screw  drivers, 
$82  worth  of  pens,  $500  worth  of  lead  pencils,  $2,000 
worth  of  machine  oil,  24  tons  of  printer's  ink,  and 
other  things  in  proportion  are  used.  Waste  paper 
is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  every  possible  piece  being 
utilized  in  the  operations  of  the  big  print  shop,  and 
yet  $30,000  worth  of  it  is  sold  annually.  Simply  by 
changing  the  style  of  the  Congressional  Record  In- 
dex, a  saving  of  $30,000  was  effected.  By  changing 
from  egg  coal  to  pea  coal,  a  saving  of  $10,000  was 
effected.  The  printing  of  the  Sunday  eulogy  edi- 
tions of  the  Congressional  Record  on  Monday  morn- 
ing represents  an  outlay  nearly  $8,000  greater  than 


GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE     307 

would  be  required  if  this  edition  of  the  Record  could 
be  released  on  Tuesday. 

When  one  goes  through  the  big  print  shop  he 
finds  many  wonderful  things.  One  room  contains 
about  80  linotype  machines,  the  largest  number  to 
be  found  in  a  single  room  anywhere  in  the  world. 
In  another  room  are  melting  pots  with  a  capacity  of 
15  tons  of  molten  metal.  In  another  room  is  a  series 
of  presses,  whose  combined  output  is  more  than  a 
million  impressions  every  hour.  Although  there 
are  87  presses  in  this  room,  there  is  not  a  pulley  or 
a  belt  in  sight,  each  machine  being  driven  by  its  in- 
dividual electric  motor.  Printer's  ink  is  applied  to 
40  tons  of  paper  every  eight  hours.  There  are  card 
presses  which  turn  out  a  million  cards  each  day. 
The  job  section  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in 
existence.  It  turns  out  more  work  in  a  single  day 
than  the  average  job  office  of  the  commercial  world 
could  turn  out  in  a  full  week.  The  most  perfect 
equipment  that  money  can  buy  is  to  be  found 
throughout  the  entire  plant. 

The  Public  Printer  is  able  to  give  a  good  account 
of  himself  with  this  superb  equipment  when  heavy 
demands  are  made  upon  him.  When  the  Naval 
Court  of  Inquiry  into  the  destruction  of  the  Maine 
made  its  report,  President  McKinley  transmitted 
the  document  to  Congress  one  afternoon.  The  next 
morning  it  was  printed  and  in  the  hands  of  every 
member  of  the  Senate  and  House,  and  of  the  various 
members  of  the  press.  It  contained  24  full-pa.^e 
illustrations,  1  lithograph  in  colors,  and  nearly  300 
pages  of  printed  matter. 


308       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

When  a  congressional  committee  was  making  an 
investigation  into  the  matter  of  hazing  at  West 
Point,  the  Government  Printing  Office  was  able,  in 
36  hours,  to  print  and  deliver  to  Congress  the  2,000- 
page  report  of  that  inquiry.  Congress  makes 
heavier  demands  upon  the  Government  Printing 
Office  than  any  of  the  other  branches  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. Its  annual  printing  bill  amounts  to  more 
than  $2,000,000.  The  Congressional  Record  and 
the  printing  of  hearings,  committee  reports,  and 
bills  cover  the  major  portion  of  this  amount.  Dur- 
ing a  single  year  the  Government  Printing  Office 
printed  for  Congress  more  than  a  million  copies  of 
octavo  publications,  27,000  copies  of  the  Congres- 
sional Record  every  day,  some  500  copies  each  of 
more  than  30,000  bills  and  resolutions,  and  numerous 
other  things  in  proportion. 

The  next  most  liberal  patron  of  the  Government 
Printing  Office  is  the  Patent  Office.  The  very  large 
expense  attached  to  the  issuance  of  the  Patent  Office 
Gazette  is  responsible  for  this.  This  publication  is 
issued  weekly,  each  issue  containing  the  drawings 
and  specifications  of  all  patents  issued  during  the 
preceding  week,  and  also  containing  a  list  of  trade- 
marks granted.  The  Department  of  Agriculture 
ranks  third.  Its  most  important  publication  is  the 
annual  Year-book,  of  which  half  a  million  copies  are 
published.  Each  book  weighs  about  3  pounds  and 
the  total  edition  would  require  more  than  25  freight 
cars  to  transport  it. 

Nothing  is  too  exacting  for  the  Government 
Printing  Office  to  undertake.    The  War  of  the  Re- 


GOVERNMENT  FEINTING  OFFICE     309 

bellion  Eecords,  publislied  in  128  volumes,  and  re- 
quiring a  1,200-page  index,  perhaps  for  generations 
will  remain  the  world's  greatest  undertaking  in  the 
printing  line.  These  records  contain  more  than  a 
hundred  thousand  pages  of  printed  matter  and  re- 
quired in  their  publication  80,000  reams  of  white 
paper  and  more  than  3,000,000,000  ems  of  type.  The 
whole  edition  comprises  about  a  million  and  a  half 
volumes.  Not  only  large  tasks  are  undertaken,  but 
exacting  ones  as  well.  When  Congress  wanted  to 
publish  a  history  of  the  Capitol,  it  demanded  that 
the  completed  volume  should  be  one  of  the  finest  ex- 
amples of  the  printer's  art  anywhere  to  be  found. 
The  resulting  volume  is  a  splendid  example  of  fine 
printing.  When  Congress  offers  to  sell  a  publica- 
tion, it  never  counts  in  the  cost  of  the  manuscript, 
the  cost  of  composition,  or  anything  else  except  the 
cost  of  the  paper  and  other  materials  entering  into 
the  publication  and  the  labor  involved  in  printing 
and  binding.  Yet,  with  the  history  of  the  Capitol 
being  sold  on  this  basis,  the  price  of  the  work  was 
fixed  at  $10. 

Under  the  administration  of  Public  Printer  Sam- 
uel B.  Donnelly  the  cost  of  performing  a  given  piece 
of  work  has  been  materially  reduced.  During  one 
fiscal  year  he  was  able  to  cut  down  the  scale  of 
charges  5  per  cent,  and  to  ac'-omplish  more  work 
with  97  less  employees.  During  the  next  year  he 
reduced  this  still  lower  by  3  per  cent,  the  principal 
decrease  being  ^  cents  per  thousand  ems  in  the  item 
of  plain  composition.  The  accounts  of  the  office 
show  the  cost  of  operating  each  division  and  sec- 


310       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

tion,  making  it  possible  for  the  Public  Printer  to 
ascertain  the  cost  of  the  various  operations  and  to 
determine  the  comparative  efficiency  of  the  different 
people  in  the  office.  Under  the  present  plan  of  ac- 
counting^ the  Public  Printer  is  able  to  know  at  the 
close  of  each  day  exactly  how  much  the  operations 
of  that  day  have  cost  and  what  funds  remain  avail- 
able for  the  remainder  of  the  fiscal  year. 

It  is  a  prevalent  opinion  that  the  overhead  ex- 
penses of  the  Government  Printing  Office  are  not  as 
great  as  those  of  commercial  establishments.  How- 
ever, these  overhead  items  include  power,  heat, 
light,  repair  to  buildings  and  plant,  maintenance  of 
a  delivery  service,  stock  rooms,  sanitary  forces,  and 
pajTnents  to  employees  injured  in  the  service.  They 
^Iso  include  $50,000  for  watchmen,  $170,000  for  holi- 
days, $358,000  for  leaves  of  absence,  and  $190,000 
for  salaries.  The  overhead  charges  include  all  the 
items  entering  into  the  expense  of  operating  a  com- 
mercial shop  with  the  exception  of  rent  and  the  in- 
surance. These  items  are  more  than  offset  by  the 
half  million  dollars  required  for  holidays  and  leaves 
of  absence.  With  the  amount  of  money  the  Govern- 
ment spends  for  holidays  and  leaves  of  absence  at 
the  Government  Printing  Office  the  Public  Printer 
could  pay  the  rent  and  insurance  upon  a  building 
,  with  twice  the  floor  space  of  the  Government  Print- 
■ing  Office,  and  located  either  in  New  York  or 
Chicago. 

That  there  is  an  expenditure  of  unnecessary 
money  in  connection  with  the  distribution  of  public 
documents  is  the  belief  of  the  Public  Printer.    At 


GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE     311 

tlie  present  time  the  product  of  the  Government 
Printing  Office  is  hauled  to  the  different  departments 
and  bureaus,  where  it  is  wrapped  and  addressed 
and  then  again  hauled  to  the  Post  Office,  and  from 
the  Post  Office  again  to  the  railway-mail  cars.  It  is 
proposed  by  the  Public  Printer  that  a  mailing  sta- 
tion shall  be  established  in  the  Government  Printing 
Office  itself,  and  all  mail  of  this  nature  hauled  to  the 
mail  cars  direct  from  the  workrooms  and  storage 
rooms  in  the  Government  Printing  Office. 

There  is  an  arrangement  whereby  Senators  and 
Representatives  may  have  their  speeches  printed 
for  them  at  the  actual  cost  of  the  paper  and  the 
work  of  printing  and  assembling  them.  The  Gov- 
ernment Printing  Office  first  sets  up  the  speeches  in 
type  for  the  purpose  of  putting  them  into  the  Con- 
gressional Record.  When  a  Senator  or  Representa- 
tive delivers  a  speech  which  he  expects  to  have 
reprinted  and  distributed  among  his  constituents,  he 
orders  it  held  for  revision  until  he  has  time  to  ar- 
range it  as  he  would  like  to  have  it  appear.  It  is 
then  printed  in  the  Record  separate  from  the  regu- 
lar proceedings,  and  it  is  contained  in  the  appendix 
of  the  bound  sets  of  the  Congressional  Record.  He 
then  asks  the  Government  Printing  Office  to  esti- 
mate how  much  per  thousand  the  printed  speeches 
will  cost  delivered  at  his  offices. 

In  order  that  every  citizen  may  have  full  and  free 
opportunity  to  possess  himself  of  any  information 
contained  in  any  part  of  the  publications  of  the 
Federal  Government,  even  though  he  may  not  be 
able  to  get  them  through  his  Member  of  Congress  or 


312       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

througli  any  bureau  officials  of  the  Government,  the 
office  of  the  Superintendent  of  Documents  has  been 
created,  and  this  office  conducts  a  regulrr  bookstore 
with  only  Government  documents  on  its  shelves. 
After  the  demands  of  Congress  and  the  departments 
are  supplied,  a  sufficient  number  of  additional  copies 
of  each  publication  are  run  off  to  supply  the  needs 
of  the  general  public. 

Many  valuable  publications  are  issued  under  the 
g-uise  of  a  public  document.  And  the  superintend- 
ent of  public  documents  is  expected  to  use  such 
means  of  advertising  them  as  will  bring  them  to  the 
attention  of  the  general  public.  These  publications 
are  sold  at  the  bare  cost  of  the  production  after  the 
plates  have  been  made.  All  other  expenses  are  met 
by  the  Federal  Treasury.  Yet  with  opportunities 
like  this  to  buy  publications  from  Uncle  Sam's  book- 
store at  a  cost  even  smaller  than  the  actual  expense 
of  production,  the  sales  are  much  more  limited  than 
would  naturally  be  expected.  The  reason  for  this 
lies  in  the  fact  that  people  object  to  paying  for  a 
thing  at  one  place  which  may  be  had  free  at  another. 
Nearly  every  publication  which  the  superintendent 
of  documents  has  for  sale  may  be  obtained  from  a 
Senator  or  a  Representative  without  any  cost  what- 
ever. The  majority  of  people  are  aware  of  this 
fact,  and  write  directly  to  their  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives for  such  publications  as  they  desire. 
However,  the  total  cash  sales  of  documents  in  1910 
aggregated  more  than  $76,000.  That  the  public  is 
growing  more  appreciative  of  the  value  of  public 
documents  is  revealed  by  the  fact  that  the  cash  sales 


GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE     313 

have  increased  to  this  point  from  $12,000  in  only  six 
years.  This  has  been  due  largely  to  the  use  of 
printer's  ink  in  advertising  the  fact  that  the  Gov- 
ernment has  such  documents  for  sale.  The  super- 
intendent sends  out  lists  of  important  publications 
on  all  the  leading  subjects  in  which  the  mass  of  the 
people  are  interested,  and  these  are  posted  conspicu- 
ously in  the  small  post  offices  throughout  the  United 
States. 

The  Government  also  sends  out  to  all  of  the  im- 
portant libraries  of  the  country  which  are  desig- 
nated by  the  Senators  and  Representatives  from  the 
States  in  which  they  are  located  a  full  list  of  Gov- 
ernment publications.  While  many  of  the  libraries 
seem  to  appreciate  the  privilege  accorded  to  them 
in  supplying  public  documents,  others  do  not  care 
for  it.  The  Government  requires  the  libraries  act- 
ing as  depositaries  of  public  documents  to  accept 
the  whole  list  or  none.  Many  libraries  are  not  able 
to  give  shelf  room  and  to  index  the  entire  list.  The 
Government  Printing  Office  officials  believe  that 
every  library  should  be  permitted  to  select  only 
such  documents  as  it  finds  essential  to  its  particular 
work. 

A  few  years  ago  it  was  determined  to  eliminate  a 
vast  accumulation  of  worthless  public  documents 
from  the  storage  rooms  of  the  Government  Printing 
Office.  They  were  documents  which  had  been  re- 
turned from  libraries  and  other  sources,  and  were 
piled  together  without  any  reference  to  their  use^^ul- 
ness,  the  million  and  a  quarter  documents  compris- 
ing the  accumulation  having  been  thrown  together 


314       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

as  they  came  in.    It  took  more  tlian  400  typewritten 
pages  to  list  them. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  publications  issued  at 
the  Government  Printing  Office  is  what  is  known  as 
the  Style  Book.  With  hundreds  of  printers  en- 
gaged in  setting  up  the  type,  and  with  thousands  of 
authors  contributing  manuscripts,  it  would  inevita- 
bly result  that  there  could  be  no  continuity  of  style 
with  reference  to  spelling,  typography,  capitalizing, 
etc.,  if  some  fixed  rules  were  not  laid  down.  There 
are  hundreds  of  words  which  may  be  spelled  in  two 
ways,  both  correct,  and  either  acceptable.  But  in 
printing  a  book  or  pamphlet  one  or  the  other  of 
these  spellings  must  be  taken  and  adhered  to.  For 
instance,  it  would  not  do  to  speak  of  ''favor  "  on  one 
page  and  "favour"  on  the  next  page.  In  all  such 
cases  the  Printing  Office  rules  follow  Webster's  Dic- 
tionary, not  because  Webster's  is  necessarily  better 
than  any  other  standard  dictionary,  but  because 
there  must  be  some  standard  to  go  by.  Another 
matter  which  is  considered  in  the  Style  Book  is  that 
of  capitalization.  It  will  be  observed  in  reading 
newspapers  that  some  of  them  spell  Congress  with  a 
small  "c,"  and  others  will  "Cap"  the  word.  In 
thousands  of  cases  capitalization  is  merely  a  matter 
of  taste.  Yet  it  must  be  made  uniform  in  a  given 
office.  Therefore,  the  Style  Book  deals  extensively 
with  the  question  of  capitalization.  The  practice 
which  the  Government  follows  is  to  capitalize  the 
names  of  Government  bodies,  as,  for  instance,  Con- 
gress, the  Bureau  of  Chemistry,  and  the  Office  of 
Indian  Affairs.    All  State  bodies  are  written,  un- 


GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE     315 

less  accompanied  by  the  name  of  the  State,  with 
small  letters,  as  the  board  of  health,  and  the  bureau 
of  mines.  All  great  natural  objects  are  capitalized 
in  both  the  singular  and  the  plural,  as,  Ohio  River, 
Massachusetts  and  Cape  Cod  Bays,  and  the  Golden 
Gate. 

In  punctuation  and  abbreviation  rigid  rules  are 
followed.  "When  three  or  more  adjectives  follow 
one  another,  the  Government  style  is  to  put  a  comma 
after  all  but  the  last,  as,  for  instance,  "He  was  kind, 
considerate, and  gentle."  Again,  it  is  right  to  speak 
of  an  ''ill-natured  man,"  and  proper  to  write  "a 
man  who  is  ill  natured, ' '  using  the  hyphen  in  the  one 
case  and  omitting  it  in  the  other.  It  is  proper  to 
write  Boston  and  Boone  Island  Lights,  and  likewise 
Massachusetts  Bay  lights;  Grant's  Tomb  and  the 
tomb  of  Napoleon. 

The  existing  Style  Book  of  the  Government  Print- 
ing Office  was  compiled  by  a  committee  appointed 
by  the  Public  Printer,  consisting  of  the  leading  ex- 
perts on  style  in  the  Government  Printing  Office. 
After  they  had  completed  their  work,  they  sent  it 
to  all  of  the  various  officials  of  the  Government  who 
were  interested  for  suggestions  as  to  additions  and 
changes.  After  these  officials  had  gone  over  the 
work  carefully,  and  submitted  their  views,  such 
changes  were  made  as  would  bring  the  work  in  con- 
sonance with  these  ideas,  and  the  Style  Book  was 
then  formally  adopted  and  is  the  standard  to-day 
by  which  all  the  Government  printing  is  done.  It 
probably  represents  the  world's  most  authoritative 
work  on  printing  style. 


316       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Not  only  does  the  Government  spend  more  than 
$6,000,000  for  printing  in  Washington,  but  an  addi- 
tional $2,000,000  may  be  added  for  work  done  out- 
side of  Washington.  No  one  ever  has  undertaken 
to  make  an  accurate  estimate  of  the  expense  in- 
curred by  Uncle  Sam  in  the  preparation  of  the  man- 
uscripts which  are  printed  by  the  Government. 
They  are  practically  the  product  of  an  expenditure 
of  nearly  a  billion  dollars  a  year  by  the  Federal 
establishments;  but  if  one  were  to  consider  only 
such  activities  as  are  made  primarily  for  the  pur- 
pose of  publishing  information,  it  is  probable  that 
the  gathering  of  material  which  goes  to  the  Printing 
Office  represents  an  expenditure  of  $15,000,000.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  if  Uncle  Sam  possessed  a 
proper  system  of  editing,  the  national  printing  bill 
mi.^^ht  be  cut  in  two.  In  a  recent  investigation  into 
the  cost  of  printing  it  was  stated  by  an  authority 
that  two  out  of  every  three  of  the  public  documents 
issued  by  the  Government  could  be  boiled  down  to 
half  their  present  size  without  the  omission  of  any 
material  fact. 


XXV. 
THE  CIVIL  SERVICE. 

Appkoximately  40C,000  persons  find  employment 
ill  the  executive  civil  service  of  the  United  States. 
Add  to  these  those  who  do  work  for  the  Government 
by  contract,  such  as  star-route  mail  carriers,  and 
those  who  are  connected  with  the  legislative  and 
judicial  branches  of  the  Government,  and  it  will  ap- 
pear that  there  are  approximately  half  a  million 
people  working  for  Uncle  Sam. 

About  half  of  these  are  under  what  is  known  as 
the  classified  service ;  that  ^is,  they  are  men  and 
women  who  have  been  appointed  after  competitive 
examination,  or  who  occupied  positions  when  they 
became  subject  to  examination.  The  United  States 
annually  expends  several  hundred  million  dollars 
for  salaries  and  wages.  These  salaries  range  from 
the  $75,000  paid  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  down  to  the  $5  a  year  received  by  a  back- 
woods postmaster,  determined  by  the  cancellation 
of  the  postage  stamps  on  mail  originating  at  his 
office. 

Government  employees  get  their  positions  in  dif- 
ferent ways.  The  President  directly  appoints 
nearly  10,000  of  them.    These  are  the  higher  offi- 

317 


318       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

cials  of  the  Government,  such  as  Cabinet  officers 
and  their  chief  assistants,  judges  of  the  courts,  post- 
masters above  the  fourth  class.  United  States  mar- 
shals, district  attorneys,  heads  of  important  bu- 
reaus, and  members  of  various  commissions  and 
other  organizations.  About  a  quarter  of  a  million 
employees  secure  their  positions  through  competi- 
tive examinations  taken  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Civil  Service  Commission,  a  body  which  has  in 
charge  the  enforcement  of  the  provisions  of  the  Fed- 
eral civil-service  law.  Nearly  200,000  receive  their 
appointments  without  competitive  examinations, 
and  are  said  to  be  in  the  unclassified  service.  Many 
of  these  are  in  positions  where  mental  qualifications 
are  not  as  essential  as  physical  strength,  most  of 
them  being  merely  manual  laborers. 

The  maintenance  of  a  competent  force  for  the 
operation  of  the  machinery  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment always  has  involved  many  serious  problems. 
During  the  greater  part  of  the  first  century  of  na- 
tional existence  positions  in  the  Federal  service 
were  distributed  under  what  was  known  as  the 
*' spoils  system."  When  a  new  political  party  came 
into  power  it  considered  that  one  of  its  first  duties 
was  to  turn  out  the  entire  force  which  had  adminis- 
tered affairs  under  the  former  administration,  and 
to  put  its  own  adherents  into  their  places.  The  evils 
of  the  "spoils  system"  continued  to  grow  more 
marked  until  1883,  when  the  civil-service  act  was 
passed,  and  the  present  merit  system  had  its  begin- 
ning. 

That  this  system  of  appointing  Government  em- 


THE    CIVIL   SERVICE  319 

ployees  and  keeping  them  in  office  has  been  a  vast 
improvement  over  the  old  patronage  system  is 
agreed  by  all.  But  even  with  this  plan  of  maintain- 
ing an  efficient  force  certain  objections  have  arisen. 
One  of  these  is  that  employees  continue  in  the  serv- 
ice long  after  the  period  of  their  efficiency  is  passed, 
and  when  they  are  no  longer  able  to  render  satisfac- 
tory return  for  their  salaries.  It  is  agreed  that  the 
Government  should  not  turn  them  out  of  the  serv- 
ice, and  yet  it  is  realized  that  they  have  passed  their 
term  of  usefulness.  To  keep  them  in  their  positions 
after  they  have  become  unable  to  do  their  work  is 
to  adopt,  without  any  law  therefor,  a  sort  of  old-age 
pension  system. 

There  are  clerks  in  the  Government  service  who 
have  to  be  wheeled  to  their  desks  in  roller  chairs, 
and  others  have  been  known  to  continue  on  the  Fed- 
eral payroll  long  after  they  have  passed  the  age  of 
80  years.  Although  the  law  strictly  requires  effi- 
ciency in  the  public  service  to  be  maintained,  the 
average  departmental  chief  feels  that  it  would  be 
inhuman  to  turn  the  old  clerks  out,  and  so  they  con- 
tinue in  the  service.  It  is  estimated  that  1  out  of 
every  14  Government  employees  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington is  over  65  years  old. 

As  long  as  there  is  no  law  requiring  compulsory 
retirement  after  a  certain  age  limit  there  is  no  hope 
of  eliminating  these  people  from  the  service.  Of 
course,  Congress  will  not  set  an  age  limit  for  com- 
pulsory retirement  without  making  some  sort  of 
provision  for  the  clerks  after  they  are  retired.  A 
straight  out  civil  pension  is  held  by  many  to  be  out 


320       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

of  the  question,  since  it  would  involve  the  payment 
by  the  Government  of  perhaps  $25,000,000  a  year 
to  people  who  were  no  longer  rendering  any  return 
therefor.  Another  proposal  has  been  brought  up 
which  probablv  will  eventually  be  enacted  into  law. 
This  proposal  is  that  a  certain  amount  shall  be  de- 
ducted each  n  onth  from  the  salaries  of  Government 
employees  and  placed  in  a  retirement  fund  which 
the  Government  will  administer  for  the  clerks,  pay- 
ing them  4  per  cent  interest  thereon.  Every  clerk 
will  be  compelled  to  retire  at  the  age  of  70,  and  will 
be  paid  a  certain  amount,  in  monthly  installments, 
during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  This  amount 
will  be  determined  by  the  length  of  his  active 
service. 

The  basis  proposed  is  that  of  l^^  per  cent  of  the 
full  salary  drawn  by  the  clerk  from  the  time  he 
enters  the  service  until  his  retirement.  In  other 
words,  a  clerk  who  remained  in  the  service  for  50 
years,  receiving  an  average  of  $1,200  a  year  during 
that  time,  would  have  received  in  the  aggregate 
$60,000.  With  the  retirement  pay  of  II/3  per  cent, 
his  annual  retirement  salary  would  be  $900,  or  thi^ee- 
fourths  of  his  regular  salary. 

The  average  pay  of  the  Government  employee  in 
the  United  States  is  $948.  The  employee  in  Wash- 
ington d^-aws  an  average  of  $1,079,  while  the  one 
outside  of  the  District  of  Columbia  gets  $928.  The 
advocates  of  this  system  insist  that  the  clerks  are 
unable  to  save  anything  out  of  these  salaries  when 
managing  their  own  finances,  but  believe  that  if  the 
Government  made  their  savings  compulsory  they 


THE    CIVIL   SERVICE  321 

could  rise  to  the  occasion  and  find  their  old  age  pro- 
vided for. 

It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  if  the  United 
States  finally  decides  to  adopt  a  system  of  retiring 
the  superannuated,  the  Federal  Treasury  will  have 
to  meet  the  outlays  thereunder  until  such  time  as 
the  funds  collected  from  the  clerks  are  sufficient  to 
meet  the  annual  demands  upon  the  retirement  funds. 
According  to  the  figures  prepared  the  deductions 
from  the  salaries  of  the  clerks  would  not  be  suffi- 
cient to  meet  the  annuities  until  after  1975.  Prior 
to  that  time  the  Federal  Treasury  would  have  to 
make  an  annual  contribution  beginning  with  about 
three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars  for  the  year  the 
law  became  effective,  increasing  year  by  year  until 
it  reached  one  and  three-quarter  millions,  and  then 
declining  again  to  nothing  in  a  little  less  than  70 
years.  The  total  help  the  clerks  would  get  in  this 
way  would  amount  to  $65,000,000,  besides  the  sev- 
eral million  dollars  it  would  cost  to  administer  the 
fund. 

Despite  the  fact  that  those  who  are  in  the  Gov- 
ernment service  feel  that  they  are  underpaid,  and 
that  their  battle  with  the  high  cost  of  living  is  an 
unequal  one,  a  feeling  that  is  certainly  justified  in 
the  case  of  the  man  in  the  service  who  has  to  support 
a  family  in  Washington,  there  are  always  a  plenti- 
ful number  of  others  who  would  be  glad  to  take 
their  places.  There  are  two  eligibles  for  every  ap- 
pointment made.  During  a  recent  year  the  Civil 
Service  Commission  examined  123,657  applicants 
for  civil  service  appointments.     Senators  and  Rep- 


322       THE  AMERICAN  GOVEENMENT 

resentatives  are  being  constantly  besieged  by  con- 
stituents who  would  like  to  get  into  the  Government 
service,  so  much  so  that  it  is  not  improbable  that  the 
day  will  come  when  Congress  will  enact  a  law  for- 
bidding any  of  its  Members  to  intercede  in  behalf 
of  anyone  for  appointment  to  the  classified  Federal 
service. 

The  Civil  Service  Commission  is  now  pursuing 
the  policy  of  holding  only  such  examinations  as  are 
required  for  the  needs  of  the  service.  Formerly 
examinations  were  held  more  frequently,  and  the 
result  was  that  there  were  nearly  50,000  more  ex- 
amination papers  a  year  to  be  gone  over  by  the  com- 
mission than  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  a 
sufficient  list  of  eligibles.  This  results  in  those  who 
succeed  being  advised  of  their  ratings  much  earlier, 
and  fewer  of  those  who  are  eligible  decline  appoint- 
ments than  when  there  is  a  delay  in  announcing  the 
result  of  the  examination. 

The  character  of  examinations  is  gradually  broad- 
ening. Many  new  lines  of  activity  on  the  part  of 
the  Federal  Government  have  resulted  in  a  demand 
for  expert  employees  of  many  kinds.  Among  these 
may  be  mentioned  apicultural  assistants,  banking 
economists,  forest  engineers,  grazing  fee  collectors, 
oil  inspectors,  wireless  engineers,  tobacco  experts, 
landscape  gardeners,  scientific  assistants  in  basket 
willow  culture,  and  engineers  of  tests.  The  Civil 
Service  Commission  must  plan  examinations  which 
will  serve  to  test  in  a  thorough  and  practical  manner 
the  special  qualifications  of  the  applicants  for  the 
proper  performance  of  the  duties  of  the  positions 


THE    CIVIL   SERVICE  323 

they  seek  to  fill.  The  wide  range  of  the  activities 
of  the  Federal  Government  may  be  inferred  from 
the  statement  that  approximately  500  different 
kinds  of  examinations  are  held  annually  by  the 
Civil  Service  Commission,  of  which  300  are  filled  by 
educational  tests. 

The  method  by  which  the  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sion maintains  its  lists  of  eligibles  is  to  hold  certain 
annual  examinations  for  the  general  public  service 
in  various  parts  of  the  country.  In  addition  to 
these,  examinations  are  conducted  by  local  boards 
of  examiners  to  fill  local  positions.  These  examina- 
tions are  always  announced  in  the  newspapers. 
After  the  papers  have  been  examined  and  the  rat- 
ings of  the  candidates  determined,  they  are  notified, 
and  those  who  have  been  successful  in  passing  the 
examinations  are  placed  on  the  list  of  eligibles.  Only 
about  one-eighth  of  the  positions  embraced  in  the 
competitive  service  are  located  in  Washington.  In 
administering  the  service  outside  of  Washington, 
the  commission  is  aided  by  about  1,700  local  boards 
of  examiners  having  in  all  more  than  5,000  mem- 
bers. None  of  these  local  boards  is  composed  solely 
of  the  adherents  of  one  political  party,  except  in 
cases  where  there  are  no  persons  of  the  opposite 
party  available  and  competent  to  serve. 

When  there  is  a  vacancy  in  the  Government  serv- 
ice the  official  in  charge  of  the  bureau  or  depart- 
ment in  which  the  vacancy  occurs  requests  the  Civil 
Service  Commission  to  send  him  a  list  of  eligibles 
for  the  position.  The  commission  certifies  to  him 
the  names  of  three  eligibles  for  appointment,  always 


324       THE  AMEEICAN  GOVERNMENT 

giving  preference  to  the  three  available  eligibles 
having  the  highest  ratings  npon  their  examination 
papers,  except  that  eligibles  who  were  honorably 
discharged  from  the  military  or  naval  service  by 
reason  of  disability  incurred  in  line  of  duty  are 
placed  at  the  head  of  all  others.  Positions  in  the 
execucive  departments  at  "Washington  are  appor- 
tioned among  the  States  and  Territories  on  the  basis 
of  population,  and  when  such  positions  are  to  be 
filled  eligibles  from  the  first  State  in  order  are  cer- 
tified. Under  the  present  rules  no  appointing  offi- 
cial is  permitted  to  reject  a  single  certified  eligible 
in  order  to  reach  a  name  further  down  in  the  list, 
"unless  he  can  show  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  com- 
mission that  the  eligible  is  mentally,  morally,  or 
physically  unfit  for  the  position  to  be  filled. 

Men  have  a  much  better  chance  in  the  Government 
service  than  women.  The  list  of  employees  discloses 
the  fact  that  only  one-tweifth  of  the  vast  army  of 
workers  in  the  employ  of  Uncie  Sam  are  women. 
The  law  gives  the  heads  of  the  departments  the 
privilege  of  calling  for  male  eligibles  if  they  so  de- 
sire, and  this  privilege  is  frequently  exercised.  Es- 
pecially is  this  true  in  the  case  of  positions  requir- 
ing confidential  service. 

Some  positions  are  more  easily  secured  than 
others.  This  is  true  in  the  case  of  young  men  for 
stenographers.  The  supply  of  these  has  never  ex- 
ceeded the  demand,  and  the  same  condition  prevails 
in  the  Eailway  Mail  Service  in  the  far  West  and 
Southwest,  where  nearly  all  of  those  who  succeed  in 
passing  the  examination  sooner  or  later  are  offered 


THE   CIVIL   SERVICE  325 

positions  in  the  service.  In  the  more  important 
positions  the  supply  of  eligihles  is  far  smaller  than 
in  the  less  important  ones.  There  may  be  a  thou- 
sand eligibles  for  appointment  to  a  clerkship,  where 
there  is  only  one  eligible  to  a  position  as  draftsman. 
The  reason  for  this  is  that  in  the  ordinary  positions 
Government  salaries  are  considerably  higher  than 
commercial  salaries,  while  in  technical  and  adminis- 
trative positions  the  salaries  paid  by  Uncle  Sam  are 
often  much  lower  than  those  paid  in  the  commercial 
world. 

There  are  exceptions  to  the  rule  that  all  positions 
in  the  classified  service  are  filled  under  competitive 
examinations.  Positions  which  require  highly  con- 
fidential service  are  filled  without  examination. 
National-bank  examiners,  receivers  in  the  Office  of 
the  Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  the  cable  electri- 
cians of  the  War  Department,  special  agents  of  the 
General  Land  Office  appointed  to  investigate  fraudu- 
lent entries  and  other  criminal  matters,  sccats,  buf- 
falo keepers,  park  rangers,  and  the  employees  at 
the  leprosy  investigation  station  in  Hawaii  are  in- 
stances of  the  exceptions. 

The  Civil  Service  Conunission  was  able  to  demon- 
strate its  efficiency  in  mobilizing  a  capable  corps  of 
clerks  on  a  large  scale  in  its  work  of  providing  the 
office  force  of  the  Thirteenth  Census.  It  held  two 
extensively  advertised  examinations  in  more  than 
275  cities  in  which  nearly  9,000  persons  were  exam- 
ined, of  whom  4,800  passed.  Of  these  nearly  4,000 
were  appointed.  The  70,000  census  enumerators 
and  a  large  number  of  special  agents  were  selected 


326       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

through  practical  examinations  held  under  the  local 
examining  boards  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission. 
In  all  civil-service  appointments  an  effort  is  made  to 
apportion  the  positions  among  the  States  as  equita- 
bly as  possible.  It  so  happens  that  in  some  of  the 
States  remote  from  the  National  Capital  nearly 
every  person  who  passes  a  Civil  Service  examina- 
tion gets  a  position,  while  in  the  nearby  States  very 
few  succeed  in  doing  so.  That  is  because  the  quotas 
of  the  nearby  States  have  long  since  been  filled. 

A  few  years  ago  President  Roosevelt  issued  an 
Executive  order  placing  the  fourth-class  post- 
masters in  14  States  under  the  classified  service,  and 
requiring  all  new  appointees  to  undergo  a  competi- 
tive examination.  The  results  have  not  been  en- 
tirely satisfactory,  according  to  the  statements  of 
the  Civil  Service  Commission,  because  the  rate  of 
compensation  is  too  low  to  attract  applicants  and 
the  fact  that  the  postmaster  must  furnish  the  quar- 
ters in  .vhich  to  keep  a  post  office.  This  not  infre- 
quently narrows  competition  down  to  the  vanishing 
point,  and  in  the  entire  territory  covered  by  the 
order  the  average  number  of  applicants  for  each 
appointment  as  fourth-class  postmaster  has  been 
less  than  two.  An  arrangement  has  been  made 
whereby  postmasters  whose  annual  compensation  is 
less  than  $500  may  be  appointed  upon  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  Post  Office  inspector  in  that  terri- 
tory, instead  of  after  competitive  examination. 

The  rules  of  the  Government  against  political  ac- 
tivity on  the  part  of  the  civil-service  employees  are 
growing  more  rigid  and  exacting  every  year.    No 


THE    CIVIL   SERVICE  327 

clerk  is  allowed  to  serve  on  a  political  committee, 
as  a  delegate  to  a  political  convention,  as  an  officer 
of  a  political  club,  as  chairman  of  a  political  meet- 
ing, as  precinct  worker  on  election  day,  as  editor 
of  a  newspaper  or  writer  on  subjects  discussing 
political  matters,  or  as  a  speaker  before  political 
meetings.  The  clerks  are  forbidden  to  circulate 
petitions  having  a  political  object,  to  accept  nomina- 
tions for  politic?  ■  offices,  to  be  active  in  local-option 
campaigns,  or  to  serve  as  any  sort  of  election  officer. 

One  of  the  problems  now  confronting  the  Govern- 
ment in  its  efforts  to  promote  the  efficiency  of  the 
civil-service  employees  is  that  of  finding  a  system 
of  promotion  which  will  give  the  best  possible  re- 
sults. There  are  four  methods  of  making  promo- 
tions in  the  Government  service.  The  first  of  these 
is  that  of  free  selection  by  the  promoting  officer. 
Formerly  this  gave  poor  results,  but  it  is  making 
a  better  showing  to-day.  Another  method  is  that 
of  promotion  by  seniority,  which  has  slight  relation 
to  the  efficiency  of  the  people  promoted.  The  third 
method  is  by  competitive  examination.  The  fourth 
method  is  by  efficiency  records  maintained  in  the 
offices  where  the  clerks  are  at  work.  The  Presi- 
dent's efficiency  commission  will  probably  recom- 
mend some  system  of  promotions  to  be  made  uni- 
form throughout  the  Government  service. 

A  graphic  illustration  of  the  growth  of  the  civil 
service  of  the  United  States  is  afforded  by  a  con- 
trast of  the  Government  Blue  Books  published  in 
1816  and  1905.  The  one  published  in  1816  is  not 
much  larger  than  a  child's  ''reader,"  and  had  but 


328       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

176  pages.  The  one  for  1905  had  4,219  pages.  The 
one  for  1816  weighed  less  than  a  pound,  while  the 
one  for  1905  tipped  the  beam  at  more  than  25 
pounds.  The  publication  of  the  one  for  1816  cost 
less  than  $2,000 ;  the  publication  of  the  one  for  1905 
cost  $70,000.  The  one  published  in  1911  was  so  re- 
duced in  size  by  the  elimination  of  useless  material 
that  it  cost  only  about  $30,000. 

The  Government  service  has  many  attractive  fea- 
tures to  the  person  on  the  outside.  The  Govern- 
ment clerk  is  entitled  to  an  annual  vacation  of  a  full 
month.  He  can  utilize  another  month  in  sick  leave 
if  he  needs  it.  He  has  frequent  holidays,  half -holi- 
days every  Saturday  during  the  heated  term,  and 
goes  to  work  at  9  o  'clock  in  the  morning  and  gets  off 
at  4 :30  in  the  afternoon.  To  the  young  man  on  the 
farm  and  in  the  country  town  this  seems  to  be  an 
ideal  career.  Yet  few  there  are  who  take  it  up  and 
remain  satisfied  with  their  lot.  However,  it  usually 
takes  so  much  of  the  self-reliance  and  independence 
out  of  those  who  make  it  their  lifetime  work  that 
there  is  perhaps  some  ground  for  the  statement  of 
a  Senator  who  observed  the  operations  of  the  serv- 
ice through  20  years  when  he  told  a  young  fellow 
who  had  come  to  see  him  that  he  would  rather  see 
his  boy  a  good  blacksmith  than  a  Government  clerk. 


XXVI. 

THE  SUPREME  COURT. 

As  the  head  of  the  American  judicial  system,  pos- 
sessed of  powers  which  enable  it  to  pass  on  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  acts  of  the  President,  Congress, 
and  the  States,  and  invested  with  a  permanency 
which  makes  it  independent  of  changing  public 
opinion,  the  Supreme  Court  is  in  many  respects  the 
most  powerful  factor  in  the  American  political  sys- 
tem and  the  greatest  judicial  organization  in  the 
world.  Receiving  appointment  from  the  President, 
upon  confirmation  by  the  Senate,  the  justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court  pass  bey^^nd  the  power  of  either, 
except  under  a  process  of  impeachment,  in  which  the 
House  must  act  as  Grand  Jury  and  the  Senate  as 
the  Court  of  Trial.  The  judiciary  of  England  is 
regarded  as  the  best  example  of  the  supremacy  of 
justice  in  Europe,  but  the  highest  English  occupant 
of  the  bench  must  be  removed  by  the  King,  upon  the 
request  of  Parliament.  A  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  can  be  removed  for  no 
other  cause  than  ''high  crimes  and  misdemeanors," 
which  have  never  been  charged  against  any  justice 
except  Samuel  Chase,  who  was  impeached  in  1804, 
but  who  was  acquitted  by  the  Senate.    His  impeach- 

329 


330       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

ment  grew  out  of  political  opinions  held  and  ex- 
pressed by  him,  and  did  not  involve  the  integrity  of 
the  man. 

An  example  of  how  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
may  continue  in  power,  even  after  the  whole  country 
has  turned  its  back  upon  him,  is  afforded  by  the  ex- 
perience of  Chief  Justice  Roger  B.  Taney,  who 
handed  down  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  which  in  effect 
nationalized  slavery.  Taney  continued  to  act  as 
Chief  Justice  even  through  the  administration  of 
President  Lincoln,  although  he  was  disliked  by  the 
Northern  people  as  only  a  man  can  be  when  he  holds 
opinions  against  which  a  people  are  fighting  a  bitter 
war.  As  long  as  Charles  Sumner  continued  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  a  bust  of  Taney  was  re- 
fused its  appropriate  place  in  the  Supreme  Court 
room. 

Although  the  people  have  frequently  complained 
of  decisions  made  by  the  Supreme  Court,  and  have 
called  into  question  its  judgment,  its  wisdom,  and 
its  partisan  bias,  and  although  matters  of  such  mo- 
ment that  their  ultimate  importance  could  never  be 
measured  in  dollars  and  cents  have  been  decided  by 
a  margin  of  one  vote,  no  one  ever  yet  has  called  into 
question  the  integrity  of  the  men  who  constitute  the 
Supreme  Court.  Members  of  the  court  in  discuss- 
ing the  lack  of  unanimity  which  sometimes  charac- 
terizes its  decisions  assert  that  it  can  not  be  ex- 
pected that  where  popular  and  professional  opinion 
is  so  nearly  divided  upon  the  questions  involved,  the 
justices,  selected  from  different  parties  and  from  re- 
mote sections  of  the  Union,  and  sharing  all  of  the 


THE   SUPREME   COURT  331 

infirmities  and  prejudices  common  to  their  fellow 
citizens,  should  be  unanimous  in  their  views  upon 
constitutional  questions. 

The  Supreme  Court  holds  its  annual  sessions  from 
October  to  June,  with  recesses  at  Christmas  and  at 
Easter,  and  at  such  other  times  as  the  consideration 
of  cases  which  have  been  heard  requires  it.  When 
the  court  is  in  session  its  members  go  to  the  Capitol 
every  day  in  the  week  except  Sunday.  F've  days 
are  devoted  to  the  handing  down  of  opinions  and 
the  hearing  of  cases,  Saturday  being  set  aside  as  a 
consultation  day.  Opinions  are  handed  down  on 
Mondays.  The  court  convenes  at  12  o'clock  noon. 
Its  quarters  are  in  the  Capitol  Building,  the  court 
room  being  across  the  hall  from  the  robing  and  con- 
sultation rooms,  and  is  the  room  which  was  formerly 
the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  United  States.  Promptly 
upon  the  stroke  of  12  a  passageway  across  the  corri- 
dor which  leads  from  the  House  to  the  Senate  is 
roped  off  with  silken  cords,  and  the  court,  headed 
by  the  Chief  Justice,  and  followed  by  the  others  in 
the  order  of  their  appointment,  marches  out  of  the 
robing  rooms,  across  the  corridor,  and  into  the  court 
room.  Here  everybody  arises  while  the  marshal  an- 
nounces the  court  and  the  clerk  calls  out  his  familiar 
*'Oyez!  Oyez!"  and  announces  that  the  court  is  now 
in  session  and  all  persons  having  business  before  it 
will  draw  near  and  give  attention.  The  justices  sit 
at  a  high  desk,  the  Chief  Justice  in  the  middle,  and 
the  others  to  his  right  and  left  in  the  order  of  their 
appointment.  Their  robes  hang  in  the  robing  room 
in  the  same  order  that  they  march  in,  and  they  sit 


332       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

around  the  consultation  table  in  their  chambers  in 
the  same  way. 

The  justices  wear  gowns  of  black  silk  or  like  ma- 
terial. When  the  court  was  organized,  the  question 
arose  as  to  how  its  members  should  be  dressed. 
Some  thought  they  should  wear  the  mortar-board 
cap  of  a  scholar,  some  the  garb  of  a  Roman  senator, 
some  the  attire  of  a  priest,  and  others  the  wig  and 
the  gowi:  of  the  English  jurists.  When  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson expressed  his  opinion  on  the  subject  he  ex- 
claimed: ''For  Heaven's  sake  discard  the  monstrous 
wig  which  makes  the  English  judges  look  like  rats 
peeping  through  bunches  of  oakum. '  * 

Under  the  law  the  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court 
may  retire  at  70.  However,  unless  overtaken  by 
infirmities  which  prevent  them  from  rendering  effi- 
cient service  any  longer,  they  prefer  to  work  on. 
For  instance,  Justice  Harlan  *  was  eligible  to  retire 
the  1st  of  June,  1903.  But  he  has  preferred  to  work 
on,  and  although  the  duties  of  a  Supreme  Court 
justice  are  arduous  and  trying,  he  was  still  in  har- 
ness in  1911,  and  had  34  years  of  honorable  service 
on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  behind  him.  He 
has  taken  part  in  some  of  the  most  important  deci- 
sions of  the  court  in  its  entire  history.  His  34  years 
of  service  is  more  than  double  the  average  service 
of  a  member  of  the  court.  There  have  been  few 
occasions  when  the  membership  of  the  Supreme 
Court  has  changed  so  rapidly  as  at  the  present  time. 
To-day  there  are  only  three  members  of  the  bench 
who  were  there  ten  years  ago.  This  has  come  about 
largely  through  the  numerous  deaths  that  have  oc- 

•  Died  October  14, 1911. 


THE    SUPREME   COURT  333 

curred.  Justice  Shiras  and  Justice  Brown  retired 
on  account  of  age  or  ill  health,  but  Justices  Brewer 
and  Peckham  and  Chief  Justice  Fuller  died  in  the 
harness.  Justice  Moody  became  such  a  chronic  suf- 
ferer from  rheumatism  that  although  he  was  far 
below  the  age  limit,  he  was  retired  by  an  act  of  Con- 
gress passed  especially  for  his  benefit,  and  which 
carried  with  it  full  pay  during  the  remainder  of  his 
life. 

Until  a  few  years  ago  the  Supreme  Court  met  at 
12  and  adjourned  at  4  o'clock.  The  justices  would 
withdraw  one  at  a  time  to  eat  their  lunch  behind  the 
scenes,  and  the  attorney  addressing  the  court  could 
often  attune  his  speech  to  the  rattle  of  the  dishes, 
while  perhaps  the  very  justice  to  whom  he  was  most 
anxious  to  address  his  argument  was  regaling  him- 
self with  a  dozen  fried  oysters.  This  practice  prob- 
ably would  have  continued  indefinitely  had  not  a 
new  member  come  along  and  insisted  that  they  adopt 
the  plan  of  adjourning  for  lunch  and  carrying  the 
session  further  into  the  evening. 

The  procedure  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  deter- 
mination of  the  questions  involved  is  an  interesting 
one.  To  begin  with,  it  hears  the  oral  arguments  of 
the  attorneys  in  the  case.  An  attorney  who  can  de- 
liver an  effective  speech  before  this  court  is  an  artist 
in  his  line.  Usually  the  members  apparently  take 
little  interest  in  what  an  attorney  is  saying,  and  to 
the  spectator  it  would  seem  that  the  attorney  might 
just  as  well  omit  his  oral  argument  and  trust  to  the 
briefs  he  has  previously  submitted.  But  if  anyone 
thinks  that  the  court  is  not  paying  attention,  let  him 


334       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

watch  an  attorney  stray  away  from  tlie  points  hir 
argument  is  expected  to  cover  or  misquote  a  former 
decision  of  the  court;  he  will  at  once  discover  that 
the  court  is  taking  mental  note  and  is  ready  to  re- 
mind the  attorney  of  his  error.  Sometimes  the 
court  will  hear  the  argument  of  a  plaintiff  in  error 
and  is  persuaded  that  he  had  no  case  upon  his  own 
showing.  Under  such  conditions  it  will  advise  the 
opposing  attorney  that  he  needs  to  make  no  argu- 
ment. A  humorous  incident  of  this  kind  occurred 
years  ago  when  the  famous  Matt  Carpenter  was  the 
attorney  for  the  plaintiff  in  error  in  a  certain  case. 
When  the  opposing  attorney  began  to  answer  his 
speech  the  court  declared  that  it  was  unnecessary 
for  him  to  speak  further.  The  attorney  was  hard 
of  hearing  and  did  not  understand  the  remark,  when 
Matt  Carpenter  spoke  up  and  said:  "The 'court 
would  rather  give  you  the  case  than  hear  you  talk. ' ' 
The  justices  are  not  without  their  sense  of  humor, 
even  when  on  the  bench.  Some  years  ago  a  case 
involving  a  patent  collar  button  was  pending.  While 
the  attorney  was  engaged  in  arguing  it,  one  of  the 
justices  asked  him  if  he  understood  him  to  say  that 
"if  the  button  fell  out  of  a  man's  shirt  as  he  was 
dressing  and  rolled  under  the  bed,  the  owner  could 
recover  it  without  swearing."  The  attorney  replied 
that  no  such  button  was  possible  of  invention. 

After  a  case  is  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court,  its 
members  take  the  printed  briefs  to  their  homes  and 
read  them.  There  are  a  large  number  of  these 
briefs  to  be  read,  and  often  a  single  case  involves  a 
stupendous  amount  of  study  if  the  members  of  the 


THE   SUPREME   COURT  335 

court  are  to  become  perfectly  familiar  with  it.  Sat- 
urdays being  set  apart  for  conference  days,  the 
members  of  the  court  meet  in  the  conference  room 
ari  discuss  the  cases  fully  and  freely.  A  friend  of 
one  of  the  justices  once  asked  him  what  they  did  in 
the  conference  room.  He  replied  that  they  fought 
like  cats  and  dogs.  Of  course,  this  was  overdrawing 
the  picture,  but  the  average  justice  is  a  man  of  great 
strength  of  mind  and  force  of  character,  and,  there- 
fore, tenacious  of  his  views ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered that  these  discussions  sometimes  become 
heated  and  prolonged.  After  every  justice  has  ex- 
pressed his  opinion  as  fully  as  he  cares  to,  the  Chief 
Justice  calls  the  roll  of  the  court,  and  each  member 
votes  upon  the  question  of  an  adverse  or  a  favorable 
decision.  After  this  the  Chief  Justice  assigns  to 
the  members  of  the  court  the  cases  upon  which  they 
are  to  write  their  opinions.  Later  these  opinions 
are  brought  in  by  the  members  writing  them  and  laid 
before  the  whole  court.  Here  again  they  argue  the 
case,  criticize  the  opinion,  and  often  amend  it  so 
much  that  it  has  little  semblance  to  its  original 
form. 

The  court  again  by  a  roll  call  votes  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  whether  it  shall  be  read  as  the  opinion  of  the 
court  or  not.  If  there  is  a  dissenting  vote  on  any 
case,  those  who  dissent  arrange  among  themselves 
as  to  who  shall  write  the  dissenting  opinion.  Some- 
times the  grounds  upon  which  different  justices  dis- 
sent vary,  so  that  there  may  be  one  or  more  dissent- 
ing opinions  handed  down. 

The  days  when  opinions  are  handed  down  are  try- 


336       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

ing  ones  on  the  newspaper  correspondents  who  have 
to  report  them.  There  are  a  few  justices  who  de- 
liver their  opinions  in  a  clear  and  distinct  tone  of 
voice  so  that  they  are  easily  followed  and  their 
opinions  easily  reported.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  others  who  speak  so  low  and  so  much  like  a  boy 
in  a  hurry  to  get  through  with  a  lesson  that  it  is 
next  to  impossible  to  hear  them.  The  Supreme 
Court  makes  little  provision  for  newspaper  men,  a 
practice  entirely  at  variance  with  that  of  the  other 
branches  of  the  Government.  It  is  true  that  there 
are  tables  for  the  representatives  of  the  press  asso- 
ciations, but  the  other  members  of  the  corps  of 
Washington  correspondents  must  take  their  chances 
on  two  little  benches  which  are  filled  up  with  tour- 
ists if  the  correspondents  are  not  there  on  time. 

When  a  lawyer  is  admitted  to  practice  before  the 
Supreme  Court  he  signs  his  name  in  the  official  reg- 
ister of  the  court.  Lawyers  applying  for  admission 
are  introduced  to  the  court  by  some  member  of  the 
bar,  and  immediately  after  the  formalities  have 
been  complied  with  they  are  able  to  begin  their  work 
before  the  court. 

There  is  perhaps  no  other  body  in  the  world 
which  conducts  its  business  in  a  more  impressive 
way  than  the  Supreme  Court.  With  the  exception 
of  its  gown,  there  is  nothing  to  distinguish  the  court 
from  any  other  body  of  American  officials,  but  si- 
lence is  so  rigidly  maintained  that  the  atmosphere 
is  one  of  dignity  and  solemnity.  Visitors  are  admit- 
ted at  all  times,  so  long  as  there  is  room  on  the  few 
benches  outside  the  bar. 


THE    SUPREME   COURT  337 

There  are  very  often  little  touches  of  interest  in 
the  course  of  a  day's  sitting.  When  Chief  Justice 
Fuller  was  still  on  the  bench,  he  and  Associate  Jus- 
tice Harlan  were  quite  chummy.  Upon  one  occasion 
Justice  Harlan  leaned  over  and  whispered  some- 
thing to  the  Chief  Justice,  and  they  both  began  to 
laugh  for  all  the  world  like  two  small  boys  in  school 
having  a  hard  battle  to  keep  from  laughing  aloud. 
Chief  Justice  Fuller  was  very  fond  of  his  grand- 
children, and  upon  one  occasion  had  a  little  grand- 
daughter sit  on  his  lap  while  he  was  presiding  in 
the  Supreme  Court. 

The  Supreme  Court  has  original  jurisdiction  in 
comparatively  few  cases.  Principal  among  these 
are  those  cases  where  ambassadors  and  consuls  are 
affected  and  those  to  which  a  State  is  a  party.  In 
all  other  cases  the  Supreme  Court  has  appellate 
jurisdiction ;  that  is,  the  cases  are  first  tried  in  other 
courts  and  if  the  litigants  are  not  satisfied,  may 
afterwards  be  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court  by  the 
party  desiring  to  make  an  appeal.  When  the  court 
was  first  organized  it  had  to  wait  a  full  year  before 
a  single  case  was  brought  to  its  attention.  Original 
cases  have  always  been  very  few.  Prior  to  the  Civil 
War  there  were  never  more  than  350  cases  on  its 
docket,  while  to-day  the  number  is  nearly  a  thou- 
sand. 

The  employees  of  the  Supreme  Court  seldom 
change.  They  are  men  who  have  proved  their  value, 
and  the  court  cares  nothing  whatever  for  patronage. 
The  pages  are  an  interesting  lot  of  young  fellows. 
They  must  wear  knickerbockers  as  long  as  they  con- 


338       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

tinue  to  serve  as  such,  and  this  often  brings  about 
the  somewhat  ludicrous  situation  of  a  full-fledged 
lawyer  going  around  in  boy's  clothes.  They  come 
in  when  they  are  small  boys  and  begin  to  read  law 
immediately  thereafter.  By  the  time  they  are 
grown  they  are  well  advanced  in  law,  and  when  they 
reach  their  majority  they  are  ready  to  be  admitted 
to  practice. 

The  Supreme  Court  has  a  higher  standing  in  the 
public  estimation  to-day  than  it  had  at  the  begin- 
ning of  its  career.  Chief  Justice  Jay  retired  from 
the  high  position  to  accept  a  political  office.  A  gov- 
ernorship was  then  regarded  as  more  honorable 
than  a  seat  on  the  Supreme  Bench.  Justice  Cush- 
ing  once  declined  the  Chief  Justiceship  on  the 
ground  that  he  preferred  his  position  as  Associate 
Justice  to  that  of  Chief  Justice.  Many  interesting 
stories  are  told  concerning  members  of  the  court. 
In  the  early  days  there  was  a  famous  boarding 
house  in  Washington  where  many  members  of  the 
court  lived.  Upon  one  occasion  they  agreed  that 
they  would  drink  no  wine  at  their  meals  except 
when  it  was  raining.  Chief  Justice  Marshall  sent 
Associate  Justice  Story  to  the  window  one  day  to 
see  if  it  were  raining.  Story  reported  that  there 
was  not  a  cloud  to  be  seen.  Marshall  immediately 
assumed  a  judicial  frame  of  mind  and  declared  that 
so  long  as  it  was  raining  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  court  they  were  entitled  to  their  wine,  and  that 
no  hour  ever  passed  that  it  did  not  rain  somewhere 
in  the  United  States.  ' '  Therefore, ' '  said  he, ' '  let  us 
have  our  Madeira.''    When  Justice  Field  was  on 


THE    SUPREME   COURT  339 

the  bench,  the  justices  who  sat  on  one  side  of  the 
Chief  Justice  were  Field,  Gray,  Brown,  and  White ; 
those  on  the  other  side  were  Harlan,  Brewer,  Shiras 
and  Peckham.  Those  on  the  one  side  had  no  chil- 
dren while  those  on  the  other  side  had  both  children 
and  grandchildren. 

Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  sometimes  change 
their  minds.  When  the  Pollock  case,  involving  the 
constitutionality  of  the  income-tax  law,  was  first 
heard,  the  court  refused  to  declare  it  unconstitu- 
tional. On  the  rehearing  the  vote  stood  five  to  four 
against  the  constitutionality  of  the  law.  It  is  known 
that  between  the  two  hearings  some  justice  changed 
his  mind,  as  the  personnel  of  the  court  was  the 
same.  Who  that  justice  was,  and  what  his  motives 
were,  no  outsider  is  able  to  say  with  authority.  Upon 
another  occasion,  when  the  Hayes-Tilden  presiden- 
tial election  was  in  dispute  and  it  was  decided  to 
create  an  Electoral  Commission  to  settle  it,  Justice 
Clifford  ordered  his  secretary  to  write  a  letter  an- 
nouncing that  under  no  circumstances  would  he  ac- 
cept a  place  on  the  commission.  The  next  day  he 
asked  his  secretary  if  he  had  sent  the  letter  and  re- 
ceived a  negative  reply,  whereupon  he  ordered  the 
letter  destroyed  and  accepted  a  place  on  the  com- 
mission. Justice  Brewer,  afterwards  a  member  of 
the  court,  once  declared  that  no  one  ever  knew  why 
Clifford  changed  his  mind. 

The  present  Supreme  Court  is  for  the  most  part 
made  up  of  young  men.  Hughes,  Van  Devanter, 
and  Lamar  are  all  on  the  sunny  side  of  55,  Lamar, 
the  eldest  of  the  trio,  having  been  born  in  1857,  and 


340       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Hughes,  the  youngest,  in  1862.  The  Chief  Justice, 
Edward  D.  White,  is  a  Democrat  and  an  ex-Confed- 
erate soldier,  and  was  appointed  Chief  Justice  by 
President  Taft,  a  Republican.  Harlan  and  Lurton 
admit  that  they  once  shot  at  one  another.  They 
were  on  opposite  sides  in  a  small  battle  in  Kentucky 
during  the  Civil  War. 


XXVII. 
OTHER  FEDERAL  COURTS. 

The  judiciary  of  the  United  States  consists  of 
one  Supreme  Court,  nine  circuit  courts  of  appeal, 
and  seventy-odd  district  courts.  In  addition  thereto 
there  is  the  Court  of  Claims,  in  which  all  claims 
against  the  Government  are  passed  upon,  the  Com- 
merce Court,  before  which  are  brought  all  matters 
relating  to  the  interstate  commerce  laws  of  the 
country,  and  the  Court  of  Customs  Appeals,  where 
the  statutes  relating  to  the  customs  laws  of  the 
United  States  are  interpreted.  These  latter  courts 
have  jurisdiction  in  special  matters  provided  for  by 
acts  of  Congress.  The  Supreme  Court,  the  circuit 
courts  of  appeal,  and  the  district  courts  have  juris- 
diction over  general  subjects — in  short,  over  every- 
thing not  specifically  delegated  to  the  special  courts. 

The  judicial  system  of  the  Federal  Government 
was  entirely  revamped  in  1911  under  an  act  to  co- 
dify, revise,  and  amend  the  laws  relating  to  the 
judiciary.  The  statutes  under  which  the  courts 
acted  prior  to  that  time  cover  over  9,000  sections  in 
the  statute  books  of  the  country.  It  was  a  great 
undertaking  to  get  all  of  these  together,  to  eliminate 
their  inconsistencies,  and  to  boil  them  down  into  a 

341 


342       THE  AMEEICAN  GOVERNMENT 

clear  and  concise  statute  and  at  the  same  time  to 
change  certain  features  of  the  judicial  establish- 
ment. 

As  the  judiciary  was  formerly  composed  there 
was  a  Supreme  Court,  with  a  Chief  Justice  and  8 
Associate  Justices;  9  circuit  courts  of  appeal,  with 
3  judges  each ;  77  circuit  courts,  one  in  each  judicial 
district,  which  courts  were  required  by  law  to  hold 
sessions  in  276  different  places;  and  77  district 
courts,  which  were  required  by  law  to  hold  sessions 
in  the  same  places.  There  were  29  circuit  judges 
and  90  district  judges  on  the  bench.  Under  the  old 
system  the  aggregate  number  of  days  in  which  the 
circuit  courts  of  the  country  were  in  session  was 
18,000.  The  pressure  of  work  had  grown  so  great 
that  the  district  judges  had  to  preside  over  the  cir- 
cuit courts  for  16,000  days,  leaving  only  2,000  days 
in  which  circuit  judges  presided.  The  result  pro- 
duced a  sort  of  judicial  anomaly.  A  district  judge 
would  be  sitting  as  such,  and  during  the  day  the 
calendar  would  be  completed.  No  other  cases  being 
ready  for  trial,  the  district  court  would  adjourn. 
The  judge,  without  leaving  the  bench,  would  call 
another  clerk,  who  would  bring  in  another  docket, 
and,  in  many  cases,  another  crier  would  proceed  to 
open  the  circuit  court,  and  the  district  judge,  with- 
out changing  his  seat,  would  proceed  to  dispose  of 
the  circuit-court  docket,  clothed  with  the  powers  of 
a  circuit  judge. 

Under  the  new  law  the  circuit  court  was  elimi- 
nated from  the  system.  There  are  now  three  steps 
in  litigation  from  its  inception  to  the  final  decision 


OTHER   FEDERAL   COURTS  343 

from  whicli  there  is  no  appeal.  Witli  the  exception 
of  a  very  few  isolated  cases,  all  litigation  in  the 
Federal  courts  begins  in  the  district  courts.  Appeals 
may  be  taken  from  these  courts  to  the  circuit  court 
of  appeals.  If  the  litigants  are  not  satisfied  with  the 
outcome  of  their  cases  there,  they  may,  within  cer- 
tain limitations,  carry  them  up  to  the  Supreme  Court. 
iThe  less  important  cases  are  not,  as  a  rule,  permit- 
ted to  be  carried  up  to  the  higher  courts.  The  law 
seeks  to  prevent  the  crowding  of  the  dockets  of  the 
higher  courts  by  providing  that  final  jurisdiction  in 
unimportant  litigation  may  rest  in  the  lower  courts. 
Each  court  has  its  own  seal,  its  own  records,  and 
its  own  officials.  There  is  a  United  States  district 
attorney,  a  United  States  marshal,  and  such  clerks 
of  the  court  as  its  business  demands  in  every  judi- 
cial district.  Each  district  court  must  hold  sessions 
at  a  number  of  different  places  in  the  district.  The 
law  provides  where  these  meeting  places  are  to  be, 
and  the  towns  designated  are  usually  those  which 
have  a  Federal  building.  A  large  number  of  cases 
are  not  tried  by  juries,  but  each  term  of  each  dis- 
trict court  requires  the  services  of  jurors.  These 
jurors,  both  grand  and  petit,  are  publicly  drawn 
from  a  box  containing,  at  the  time  of  each  drawing, 
the  names  of  not  less  than  300  persons  possessing 
the  necessary  qualifications,  and  whose  names  are 
placed  therein  by  the  clerk  of  the  court  and  a  com- 
missioner appointed  by  the  judge.  The  commis- 
sioner is  a  citizen  of  good  standing  residing  in  the 
district  in  which  the  court  is  held,  and  he  is  a  well- 
known  member  of  the  principal  political  party  op- 


344       THE  AMEEICAN  GOVERNMENT 

posing  that  to  which  the  clerk  of  the  court  belongs. 
The  clerk  and  the  commissioner  then  proceed  to 
place  the  names  in  the  box,  each  of  them  putting  in 
a  name  alternately  without  reference  to  party  affilia- 
tions. 

The  district  court  boundaries  of  jurisdiction  are 
laid  out  by  law.  In  nearly  half  of  the  States  a  judi- 
cial district  is  coextensive  with  the  State  lines.  In 
other  States  there  are  two  judicial  districts,  while 
in  New  York  there  are  four.  The  district  judge  is 
not  permitted  to  live  outside  of  the  limits  of  his 
district,  and  may  be  impeached  if  he  does  so.  His 
salary  is  fixed  at  $6,000  a  year.  Whenever  it  ap- 
pears that  the  judge  of  any  district  court  is  any 
way  concerned  in  any  suit  pending  before  him  in 
such  a  way  as  might  render  him  unfit  to  preside  at 
the  trial  of  the  case,  he  is  required  by  law  to  make 
a  record  of  the  fact  upon  request  of  counsel.  If 
either  party  to  any  proceeding  in  a  court  makes  an 
affidavit  that  the  judge  who  is  to  preside  over  the 
court  during  the  hearing  of  the  suit  has  a  personal 
bias  or  prejudice  in  the  case,  he  must  step  aside  and 
allow  the  senior  circuit  judge  of  the  circuit  of  which 
the  district  court  forms  a  part  to  appoint  some 
other  judge  to  sit  in  his  stead. 

Any  suit  of  a  civil  nature,  arising  under  the  Con- 
stitution or  laws  of  the  United  States  or  under 
treaties,  may  be  removed  by  the  defendant  from  the 
State  courts  to  the  United  States  district  courts. 
Any  suit  wholly  between  citizens  of  different  States 
may  be  carried  to  the  United  States  district  court. 
The  law  requires  that  all  offenses  punishable  with 


OTHER  FEDERAL  COURTS  345 

death  under  the  Federal  laws  shall  be  tried  in  the 
county  where  the  offense  was  committed,  providing 
it  can  be  done  without  great  inconvenience.  When 
a  murder  is  committed  on  the  high  seas,  the  case  is 
tried  in  the  judicial  district  where  the  person 
charged  with  the  murder  is  apprehended. 

There  are  nine  judicial  circuits  in  the  United 
States,  in  each  of  which  is  a  circuit  court  of  appeals, 
consisting  of  a  number  of  judges.  In  three  of  these 
circuits  there  are  four  judges,  and  in  one  of  them 
two.  In  the  other  five  there  are  three.  Each  cir- 
cuit is  presided  over  by  one  of  the  justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  They  seldom  sit  in  cases  coming 
up  in  the  circuit  courts  of  appeals,  but  more  usually 
look  after  the  work  of  supervising  the  administra- 
tion of  affairs  in  the  circuits. 

The  judges  of  the  Federal  courts  must  take  a  rigid 
oath  on  becoming  members  of  the  judiciary.  They 
do  solemnly  swear  that  they  will  administer  justice 
without  respect  to  persons  and  to  do  equal  right  to 
the  poor  and  to  the  rich  and  faithfully  and  impar- 
tially discharge  the  duties  incumbent  upon  them  ac- 
cording to  the  best  of  their  abilities  and  understand- 
ing, agreeable  to  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of 
the  United  States.  No  judge  of  a  Federal  court  is 
permitted  to  practice  law,  and  may  be  impeached  if 
he  attempts  to  do  so.  Any  judge  who  has  served 
10  years  continuously  and  has  attained  the  age  of 
70  may  retire  from  the  bench  by  resignation  and 
continue  to  draw  his  full  salary  during  the  remain- 
der of  his  life,  a  privilege  few  fail  to  exercise. 

The  newest  court  in  the  Federal  judicial  system 


346       THE  AMERICAN  GOVEENMENT 

is  the  Commerce  Court.  It  was  created  by  an  act 
of  Congress  approved  by  President  Taft  on  June  18, 
1910.  It  was  given  jurisdiction  formerly  possessed 
by  the  circuit  courts  over  all  cases  for  the  enforce- 
ment, otherwise  than  by  adjudication  and  collection 
of  a  forfeiture  or  penalty,  or  by  infliction  of  crim- 
inal punishment,  of  any  order  of  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  other  than  for  the  payment 
of  money.  It  also  has  jurisdiction  in  cases  brought 
to  set  aside  any  order  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission,  likewise  in  cases  arising  under  the  act 
to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and 
among  the  States,  such  as  formerly  were  brought 
in  the  circuit  courts  of  the  United  States.  The 
jurisdiction  over  these  matters  and  over  mandamus 
proceedings  of  certain  kinds  is  made  exclusive,  prac- 
tically giving  to  the  Commerce  Court  full  control 
of  aU  of  the  laws  for  the  regulation  of  interstate 
commerce. 

The  court  is  composed  of  five  judges.  When  it 
was  organized  these  judges  were  appointed  by  the 
President  as  circuit  judges  and  designated  to  serve 
as  members  of  the  bench  of  the  Commerce  Court. 
The  term  of  one  member  of  the  court  expires  each 
year,  after  which  he  takes  his  place  as  a  regular 
circuit  judge  and  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  United 
States  designates  some  other  circuit  judge  to  suc- 
ceed the  retiring  member. 

The  member  of  the  court  holding  the  earliest  ap- 
pointment becomes  the  presiding  judge  upon  the  re- 
tirement of  the  next  one  above  him.  After  a  judge 
of  the  Commerce  Court  has  served  for  five  years 


OTHER  FEDERAL   COURTS  347 

and  has  retired  therefrom  to  act  as  circuit  judge,  he 
serves  on  the  circuit  court  of  appeals  for  any  circuit 
requiring  his  services,  upon  the  designation  of  the 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  It  will  prob- 
ably be  the  custom  when  a  justice  retires  from  the 
Conunerce  Court  that  he  will  be  assigned  to  the  va- 
cancy caused  by  the  selection  of  another  circuit 
judge  to  take  his  place  on  the  Commerce  Court. 
Each  judge  of  the  Commerce  Court  receives  an  ad- 
ditional allowance  of  $1,500  a  year,  above  his  regu- 
lar salary  as  a  circuit  judge,  for  expenses  while 
serving  on  the  Commerce  Court  in  Washington. 

The  Commerce  Court  is  always  open  to  the  trans- 
action of  business.  Its  regular  sessions  are  held  in 
Washington,  but  the  powers  of  the  court  and  of  its 
officials  may  be  exercised  anywhere  in  the  United 
States.  The  court  may,  when  it  desires  to  do  so  in 
the  avoidance  of  undue  expense  or  inconvenience  to 
suitors,  meet  in  other  cities  in  any  part  of  the  coun- 
try, but  its  headquarters  always  will  be  in  Washing- 
ton. 

The  machinery  for  filing  suits  in  the  Commerce 
Court  is  simple  in  its  operation.  The  person  who 
desires  to  have  it  sit  in  judgment  files  in  the  office 
of  its  clerk  a  written  petition,  setting  forth  briefly 
and  succinctly  the  facts  constituting  the  petitioner's 
cause  for  action  and  specifying  the  relief  sought.  A 
final  judgment,  interlocutory  order,  or  decree  of  the 
Commerce  Court  may  be  reviewed  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  such  appeals  being  taken 
in  like  manner  as  appeals  from  the  circuit  courts. 
No  judgment  of  the  Commerce  Court  shall  be  super- 


348       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

seded  or  stayed  by  an  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
unless  a  member  of  that  body  shall  so  direct.  All 
suits  against  the  findings  of  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  can  be  brought  in  this  court,  but 
the  pendency  of  such  suit  shall  not  of  itself  suspend 
the  order  of  the  Commission.  Provision  is  made, 
however,  for  the  temporary  suspension  of  such 
order,  in  the  discretion  of  the  Commerce  Court, 
where  irreparable  damage  would  otherwise  ensue. 
The  presiding  judge  of  the  Commerce  Court  is  Mar- 
tin A.  Knapp,  of  New  York,  who  served  on  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission  from  1891  to  1911.  The 
other  judges  are  Robert  W.  Archbald,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania ;  William  H.  Hunt,  of  Montana ;  John  E.  Car- 
land,  of  South  Dakota;  and  Julian  W.  Mack,  of 
Illinois. 

The  Court  of  Claims  was  established  in  1855.  It 
consists  of  a  chief  justice  and  four  judges,  and  holds 
annual  sessions  in  Washington,  beginning  on  the 
same  day  that  Congress  begins  and  continuing  as 
long  as  there  is  business  on  its  docket.  On  the  first 
day  of  the  regular  session  the  court  is  required  to 
transmit  to  that  body  a  full  report  of  all  judgments 
rendered  by  it  during  the  previous  year,  the  amounts 
thereof,  and  in  whose  favor  rendered,  together  with 
a  brief  synopsis  of  each  claim.  No  Member  of  Con- 
gress is  allowed  to  practice  before  this  court,  and  if 
one  does  so  during  his  service  in  that  body,  he  is  sub- 
ject to  a  fine  of  $10,000  and  imprisonment  for  two 
years ;  moreover,  he  shall  thereafter  be  incapable  of 
holding  any  office  of  honor,  trust,  or  profit  under  the 
Government  of  the  United  States. 


OTHER  FEDERAL   COURTS  349 

The  Court  of  Claims  has  jurisdiction  over  all 
claims,  except  pensions,  founded  upon  the  Constitu- 
tion or  the  laws  of  Congress,  or  upon  any  regulation 
of  an  executive  department,  or  upon  any  contract  ex- 
pressed or  implied  with  the  Government  of  the 
United  States.  This  does  not  include  claims  grow- 
ing out  of  the  late  Civil  War  and  commonly  known 
as  war  claims.  The  court  also  acts  as  a  guide  for 
Congress  in  determining  the  propriety  of  the  Gov- 
ernment paying  any  claim  which  can  be  satisfied  only 
by  congressional  action.  The  branch  of  Congress 
having  a  case  pending  of  this  nature  may,  by  vote, 
refer  it  to  the  court,  and  the  court  then  hears  all  of 
the  testimony,  makes  the  necessary  investigations, 
and  reports  the  facts  in  the  case  to  Congress 
and  advises  that  body  what  amount,  if  any,  is 
legally  or  equitably  due  the  claimant  from  the 
United  States. 

If,  in  its  investigation  of  a  case,  the  court  finds  that 
the  claimant  has  a  claim  of  such  nature  as  to  come 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court,  it  may  proceed 
to  render  a  verdict  therein.  The  claimant  in  all  such 
cases  is  required  to  set  forth  fully  what  action  has 
been  taken,  and  if  there  is  any  fraud  in  the  presenta- 
tion of  claims,  such  claims  are  thereby  forfeited  and 
the  claimants  are  prevented  from  ever  recovering 
anything  from  the  Government  on  them. 

Another  special  court  created  by  Congress  is 
known  as  the  United  States  Court  of  Customs  Ap- 
peals, composed  of  a  presiding  judge  and  four  asso- 
ciate judges.  This  court  is  required  always  to  be 
open  for  the  transaction  of  business,  and  sessions 


350       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

may  be  held  wherever  the  court  may  designate.  All 
cases  growing'  out  of  the  decisions  of  the  customs  offi- 
cials of  the  Federal  Government  with  reference  to 
the  construction  of  the  law  and  the  facts  respecting 
classifications  of  merchandise  and  the  rates  of  duty 
imposed  thereon  come  up  to  it  from  the  Board  of 
General  Appraisers.  The  judgments  and  decrees  of 
the  Court  of  Customs  Appeals  are  final  in  all  such 
cases.  If  any  partj^  interested,  whether  it  be  a  Gov- 
ernment official  or  an  importer,  owner,  consignee,  or 
agent  of  any  imported  merchandise,  is  dissatisfied 
with  the  decision  of  the  Board  of  General  Appraisers 
he  has  60  days  in  which  to  carry  his  complaint  to  the 
Customs  Court. 

The  business  transacted  in  the  circuit  and  district 
courts  of  the  United  States  is  large.  During  the  fis- 
cal year  of  1910,  3,464  Government  cases  were  termi- 
nated. They  resulted  in  1,866  judgments  for  the 
United  States  and  254  judgments  against  the  United 
States.  The  remainder  were  either  dismissed  or 
discontinued.  The  criminal  prosecutions  in  these 
courts  are  numerous,  a  total  of  more  than  15,000 
cases  having  been  terminated  in  1910.  Of  these 
4,355  grew  out  of  violations  of  the  internal-revenue 
laws,  1,775  represented  violations  of  the  postal  laws, 
and  401  violations  of  the  pure  food  and  drug  laws. 
These  15,371  cases  resulted  in  9,451  convictions  and 
1,459  acquittals,  the  remaining  cases  having  been 
thrown  out  of  court  upon  one  ground  or  another. 
There  were  nearly  10,000  criminal  prosecutions 
pending  at  the  end  of  the  year.  The  courts  dispose 
«f  approximately  10,000  suits  a  year  to  which  the 


OTHER  FEDERAL  COURTS  351 

United  States  is  not  a  party,  and  have  about  45,000 
cases  on  their  dockets  upon  any  one  day. 

When  a  man  or  a  corporation  goes  into  bank- 
ruptcy, the  proceedings  take  place  in  the  Federal 
courts.  During  an  average  year  about  14,000  volun- 
tary petitions  in  bankruptcy  are  filed  and  a  like  num- 
ber are  disposed  of.  There  are  always  on  the  dock- 
ets of  the  Federal  courts  about  30,000  unsettled  vol- 
untary bankruptcy  cases.  The  aggregate  liabilities 
of  the  voluntary  bankruptcy  cases  closed  out  in  an 
average  year  is  approximately  $100,000,000.  Wage- 
earners  resoi-t  to  the  bankruptcy  courts  more  fre- 
quently than  any  other  class  of  people.  In  1910,  842 
petitioners  in  voluntary  cases  were  farmers,  4,366 
wage-earners,  3,667  merchants,  386  manufacturers, 
and  333  professional  men. 

When  an  insolvent  fails  to  make  a  voluntary  bank- 
ruptcy petition,  outsiders  may  file  petitions  to  have 
him  adjudged  a  bankrupt.  About  4,000  such  peti- 
tions are  filed  a  year.  Nearly  half  of  those  against 
whom  these  petitions  are  filed  are  merchants. 


) 


xxvni. 

THE   DEPAETMENT   OF  JUSTICE. 

After  the  Department  of  State,  the  Department 
of  Justice  is  the  smallest  of  the  nine  principal 
branches  of  the  Federal  executive  service.  Yet  it  is 
one  of  the  most  important  of  them  all.  Here  the 
general  laws  of  the  country  find  means  for  their  en- 
forcement and  the  laws  under  which  the  other  de- 
partments act  are  construed.  Laws  do  not  enforce 
themselves  and  the  courts  are  powerless  to  act  unless 
there  is  some  one  to  play  the  role  of  prosecuting  at- 
torney. The  office  of  the  Attorney  General  was  cre- 
ated for  the  legal  advisor  of  the  President  under  the 
judiciary  act  of  1789.  In  the  early  history  of  the 
country  the  chief  duty  of  that  official  was  to  guide  the 
Chief  Magistrate  along  legal  lines  and  to  represent 
the  United  States  in  the  Supreme  Court.  Since  that 
time  his  duties  have  expanded  until  to-day  he  is 
charged  with  the  duties  of  prosecuting  attorney  for 
the  Government,  the  direction  of  the  administration 
of  the  Federal  court  system,  and  the  supervision  of 
Federal  prisons. 

When  the  Attorney  Generalship  was  first  created 
it  carried  with  it  a  salary  of  only  $1,500  a  year,  and 

353 


354       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

the  Attorney  General  was  supposed  to  pay  his  sec- 
retary out  of  that.  He  was  not  required  to  reside  in 
Washington  and  was  permitted  to  continue  his  law 
practice  while  serving  as  the  Attorney  General  of 
the  United  States.  In  1814  the  duties  of  the  Attor- 
ney General  were  increased,  but  it  was  not  until  1870 
that  the  office  was  transformed  into  a  full-fledged  de- 
partment of  the  Government.  Prior  to  that  time  the 
Attorney  General  held  the  unique  position  of  being 
a  member  of  the  Cabinet  and  yet  not  the  head  of  a 
department. 

When  Congress  passes  an  act  of  legislation,  it  is 
usually  the  workmanship  of  many  hands.  The  orig- 
inal bill  is  amended  and  amended  again  until  it  often 
bears  but  few  marks  of  its  original  authorship.  The 
result  is  that  the  average  law  on  the  statute  books 
is  a  sort  of  patchwork  of  ideas,  not  especially  noted 
for  its  plainness  of  expression.  It  is  often  difficult 
to  imderstand  exactly  what  Congress  meant  to  say, 
and  sometimes  one  must  read  carefully  the  volumi- 
nous debates  of  the  House  and  the  Senate  before  he 
can  interpret  correctly  the  meaning  of  its  legislation. 
This  gives  rise  to  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the 
true  meaning  of  many  legislative  acts  and  to  many 
controversies  before  the  departments  and  in  the 
courts.  An  instance  of  this  is  afforded  by  the  great 
difficulty  in  the  construction  of  the  pure-food  law. 
That  law  left  much  doubt  as  to  exactly  what  consti- 
tutes a  violation  of  it.  It  was  this  doubt  that  led  to 
the  propounding  of  the  famous  query,  ''What  is 
Whisky?"  That  question  was  thrashed  out  in  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  then  carried  up  to  the 


THE  DEPAETMENT  OF  JUSTICE      355 

Solicitor  General  for  report,  and  then  to  the  Presi- 
dent who  decided  it  finally. 

Probably  more  public  interest  is  felt  in  the  prose- 
cutions under  the  Sherman  antitrust  law  than  in  any 
other  branch  of  the  work  of  the  Department  of  Jus- 
tice. Many  great  trusts  have  been  haled  into  court 
by  the  department 's  machinery  and  verdicts  secured 
which  have  resulted  in  the  breaking  up  of  such  large 
combines  as  the  Standard  Oil  Co.,  the  American  To- 
bacco Co.,  and  the  Powder  Trust.  Such  large  com- 
binations of  capital  as  the  Paper  Board  Association, 
the  "Window  Glass  Trust,  the  Turpentine  Trust,  and 
the  Wire  Pool  Associations  have  been  indicted  and 
prosecuted,  and,  in  many  instances,  verdicts  against 
them  secured.  The  Attorney  General  also  has 
charge  of  all  litigation  for  the  enforcement  of  the 
interstate-commerce  laws.  When  the  constitution- 
ality of  such  a  measure  as  the  corporation-tax  law  is 
attacked  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Attorney  General 
to  defend  the  right  of  the  Government  to  enact  and 
enforce  such  laws.  When  the  other  departments  de- 
tect violations  of  the  laws  in  their  respective  fields 
of  activity  it  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral to  prosecute  those  guilty  of  such  violations.  In 
the  investigations  into  the  frauds  upon  the  Govern- 
ment by  the  underweighing  of  sugars  imported  into 
the  United  States,  the  department  was  able  to  col- 
lect nearly  $3,000,000  from  the  Sugar  Trust  on  ac- 
count of  penalties  and  duties  fraudulently  withheld 
from  the  Treasury.  Other  sugar  manufacturers 
were  also  found  to  be  implicated  and  more  than 
$1,000,000  has  been  collected  from  them. 


356       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

The  Department  of  Justice  is  now  in  possession  of 
a  full-fledged  secret  service  of  its  own.  It  gives  its 
especial  attention  to  the  investigation  of  violations 
of  the  national-banking  laws  and  antitrust  laws, 
peonage  laws,  the  bucket-shop  laws,  the  laws  relat- 
ing to  fraudulent  bankruptcies,  the  impersonations 
of  Government  officials  with  the  intent  to  defraud, 
thefts,  murders,  and  other  offenses  committed  on 
Government  reservations  or  with  respect  to  Govern- 
ment property.  A  large  number  of  other  matters 
are  investigated  by  this  secret  service,  including  Chi- 
nese smuggling,  customs  frauds,  internal-revenue 
frauds,  post-office  frauds,  violations  of  neutrality 
laws,  land  frauds,  etc. 

Suits  may  not  be  brought  against  the  United 
States  by  individuals  except  in  certain  classes  of 
cases  which  may  be  carried  to  the  Court  of  Claims 
and  to  the  circuit  courts.  In  other  cases  it  becomes 
the  duty  of  the  Attorney  General  to  sit  in  judgment 
and  make  recommendations  to  the  President  as  to 
the  proper  course  to  pursue  where  individuals  seek 
redress.  His  opinion  in  these  cases  practically 
amounts  to  a  final  verdict  from  which  there  is  no 
appeal.  The  Attorney  General  also  gives  opinions 
upon  all  questions  submitted  to  him  by  the  Cabinet 
officers  and  the  President.  During  a  single  year  111 
formal  opinions  were  rendered  by  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, 19  upon  the  request  of  the  President  and  92 
upon  the  request  of  executive  departments.  Opin- 
ions were  also  rendered  in  406  cases  as  to  real- 
estate  titles,  involving  property  worth  more  than 
$5,000,000.  No  Government  money  may  be  expended 


THE  DEPAETMENT  OF  JUSTICE      357 

for  lands  or  buildings  by  any  of  the  executive  depart- 
ments until  the  matter  of  the  title  has  been  settled. 

In  the  role  of  prosecuting  attorney  for  the  Gov- 
ernment, the  Department  of  Justice  looks  after  aR 
actions  at  law  or  suits  in  equity  in  which  the  United 
States  has  an  incerest.  If  a  moonshiner  violates  the 
revenue  laws,  he  is  placed  in  the  custody  of  a  United 
States  marshal  and  is  prosecuted  by  the  district  at- 
torney under  the  general  direction  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice.  If  a  man  is  accused  of  robbing  the 
mails,  he  is  arrested  by  the  inspectors  of  the  Post 
Office  Department  and  turned  over  to  the  legal  offi- 
cers of  the  Department  of  Justice  for  prosecution. 
There  are  more  violations  of  the  internal-revenue 
laws  than  any  other  class  of  Federal  statutes.  Pos- 
tal laws,  customs  laws,  and  pension  laws  rank  in  the 
order  named  with  respect  to  the  frequency  of  their 
violation. 

The  Department  of  Justice  has  no  control  over  the 
Federal  courts  so  far  as  the  judges  are  concerned, 
but  the  district  attorneys,  United  States  marshals, 
and  the  clerks  of  the  courts  act  under  its  guidance. 
They  are  appointed  by  the  President,  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Senate,  but  the  Attorney  General 
is  nearly  always  consulted  before  the  appointments 
are  made,  and  in  the  discharge  of  their  official  duties 
they  are  expected  to  be  guided  by  the  advice  and  rec- 
ommendations of  the  Department  of  Justice. 

The  Attorney  General  seldom  appears  in  court  in 
person,  except  in  cases  of  great  gravity,  involving 
the  construction  of  the  Constitution.  He  may  ap- 
pear in  any  court  of  the  Federal  judiciary  if  he  de- 


358       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

sires  to  do  so.  His  cliief  assistant  is  the  Solicitor 
General,  who,  in  the  absence  or  disability  of  the  At- 
torney General,  performs  the  duties  of  the  head  of 
the  department.  Under  the  direction  of  the  Attor- 
ney General  he  has  supervision  of  all  cases  before 
the  Supreme  Court  in  which  the  Government  is  inter- 
ested. He  also  assists  his  chief  in  the  preparation 
of  opinions  for  the  guidance  of  the  President  and  the 
members  of  his  Cabinet  and  in  the  direction  of  the 
law  officers  of  the  Government  throughout  the 
country. 

Next  in  rank  to  the  Solicitor  General  is  a  lawyer 
known  as  the  Assistant  to  the  Attorney  General.  He 
is  usually  a  man  who  has  had  a  great  deal  of  experi- 
ence in  corporation  work,  and  is  popularly  known  as 
''the  chief  trust  buster"  of  the  Government.  He 
has  charge  of  all  suits  growing  out  of  the  Sherman 
antitrust  law  and  other  related  legislation. 

There  are  a  number  of  Assistant  Attorneys  Gen- 
eral in  the  department.  Three  of  these  have  their 
offices  with  the  department  and  act  under  the  direc- 
tions of  the  Attorney  General.  Another  is  in  charge 
of  all  suits  brought  against  the  Government  in  the 
Court  of  Claims.  Another  looks  after  claims  grow- 
ing out  of  depredations  committed  by  Indians  who 
are  still  under  the  control  of  the  Government.  An- 
other has  charge  of  all  the  cases  arising  out  of  the 
administration  of  the  customs  laws.  In  addition  to 
these  officials,  there  is  an  Assistant  Attorney  Gen- 
eral for  the  Interior  Department  who  interprets  all 
laws  relating  to  Indian  affairs  and  public  lands.  The 
Solicitor  for  the  State  Department  is  an  authority 


THE  DEPAETMENT  OF  JUSTICE      359 

upon  questions  of  municipal  and  international  law. 
When  a  citizen  of  tlie  United  States  has  a  claim 
against  a  foreign  Government  growing  out  of  such 
things  as  deprivation  of  property  brought  about  by 
failure  to  recognize  his  rights  as  an  American  citi- 
zen, his  case  is  studied  by  the  Solicitor,  and  the  Sec- 
retary of  State  acts  in  accordance  with  the  opinions 
of  that  official.  When  a  foreign  citizen  thinks  he  is 
mistreated  in  America  and  appeals  to  his  home  Gov- 
ernment, his  case  is  looked  into  by  the  Solicitor  and 
the  attitude  of  the  United  States  with  reference  to 
it  is  based  upon  his  findings.  The  Solicitor  also  has 
charge  of  the  examination  of  extradition  papers.  He 
is  an  official  of  the  Department  of  Justice.  The  So- 
licitor of  the  Treasury  is  also  an  official  of  the  De- 
partment of  Justice,  and  is  charged  with  the  super- 
vision of  much  of  the  litigation  of  the  Government. 
It  is  his  duty  to  give  necessary  instructions  to  United 
States  attorneys,  marshals,  and  clerks  of  the  courts 
in  matters  and  proceedings  appertaining  to  the  suits 
under  his  superintendence.  He  examines  all  official 
bonds,  such  as  are  filed  in  the  Treasury  Department, 
and  issues  distress  warrants  against  delinquent  col- 
lectors and  other  custodians  of  public  money.  There 
is  also  a  Solicitor  for  the  Internal  Eevenue  Bureau, 
one  for  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor, 
and  one  for  the  Department  of  Agriculture. 

The  Department  of  Justice  also  has  charge  of  all 
pardon  cases  excepting  those  in  the  Army  and  Navy. 
When  a  petition  is  filed  with  the  President  asking 
him  to  pardon  any  person  convicted  of  crime  against 
the  Federal  Government,  he  refers  the  matter  to  the 


360       THE  AMERICAN  GOVEENMENT 

Department  of  Justice.  Here  it  is  assigned  to  a 
special  attorney  known  as  the  Attorney  in  Charge  of 
Pardons.  He  goes  over  the  case  carefully  and  briefs 
all  of  the  evidence  and  correspondence  relating  to  it, 
then  turns  it  over  to  the  Attorney  General.  He  in 
turn  makes  his  recommendations,  and  then  sends  the 
papers  to  the  President. 

A  new  duty  recently  was  assigned  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice — the  administration  of  the  law  for 
the  parole  of  Federal  prisoners.  Under  the  act  of 
June,  1910,  all  Federal  prisoners  sentenced  to  a  term 
of  upward  of  one  year  are  qualified,  after  the  expira- 
tion of  one-third  of  their  term,  to  apply  for  a  parole ; 
that  is,  to  be  liberated  for  the  remainder  of  their 
term  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as  the  Attor- 
ney General  may  approve.  The  board  of  parole  is 
composed  of  the  Superintendent  of  Prisons,  an  offi- 
cial of  the  Department  of  Justice,  and  the  warden 
and  physician  of  the  respective  penitentiaries.  Ap- 
plications for  parole  are  heard  by  that  board  in  the 
first  instance.  If  they  recommend  the  parole,  the 
case  goes  to  the  Attorney  General  for  approval  or 
disapproval.  It  is  a  condition  precedent  to  the  ap- 
proval of  a  parole  that  some  responsible  person  un- 
dertakes to  look  after  the  prisoner  and  to  provide 
him  with  employment.  The  prisoner  is  subject  also 
to  general  supervision  by  a  probation  officer.  In 
case  he  violates  the  conditions  of  his  parole,  he  may 
be  returned  to  prison.  A  very  large  number  of 
prisoners  have  been  paroled  during  the  past  year. 
Up  to  the  present  time,  no  prisoner  has  violated  his 
parole. 


THE  DEPARTMENT  OF,  JUSTICE      361 

It  is  said  by  the  officials  of  the  department  that 
letters  constantly  reaching  them  indicate  that  there 
is  a  somewhat  general  misconception  on  the  part  of 
the  public  of  the  department's  relation  to  the  admin- 
istration of  justice.  It  does  not  in  any  way  or  sense 
control  or  direct  the  action  of  the  Federal  courts, 
nor  is  it  responsible  for  the  final  decision  of  any 
court,  civil  or  criminal;  its  responsibility  ending 
with  the  proper  presentation  to  a  court  of  the  facts 
and  constructions  of  the  law  germane  to  the  conten- 
tion of  the  Government  in  any  particular  case. 
The  motto  which  appears  on  the  seal  of  the  depart- 
ment is :  ' '  Qui  pro  domina  justitia  sequitur. ' '  Poet- 
ically translated,  this  means:  "Who  sues  for  the 
lady  justice!"  In  other  words,  the  department  is 
charged  with  the  responsibility  solely  of  presenting 
to  the  appropriate  court  the  considerations  which 
go  to  make  up  a  Government  case  in  the  event  of  an 
alleged  infraction  of  a  Federal  statute  or  of  any 
civil  cause. 

In  its  work  of  rendering  opinions  for  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  heads  of  the  executive  departments  on 
business  relating  to  their  affairs,  the  Department  of 
Justice  has  uniformly  held  that  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral is  debarred  from  giving  opinions  on  matters  of 
law  to  others  than  the  officials  named.  It  was 
feared  in  the  early  days  of  the  Republic  that  a  De- 
partment of  Justice,  unless  strictly  limited  in  this 
respect,  might  develop  into  a  bureau  which  would  be 
a  source  of  free  advice  on  legal  matters  to  citizens 
of  the  United  States  in  general.  In  order  to  avoid 
such  embarrassment,  the  Attorneys  General  have 


362       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

held  strictly  to  the  law,  even  declining  to  comply 
with  the  request  of  a  committee  of  Congress  for  an 
opinion  on  a  legal  matter. 

It  costs  approximately  $10,000,000  a  year  to  main- 
tain the  judicial  branch  of  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment. Of  this  $1,000,000  is  expended  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  Department  of  Justice  in  "Wash- 
ington, another  million  for  the  maintenance  of  pris- 
oners who  violate  the  laws  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, and  $7,000,000  for  the  operations  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  courts.  An  average  of  more  than  2,500 
prisoners  are  maintained  at  the  expense  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government  all  the  time,  exclusive  of  those 
kept  in  county  jails  pending  trial  and  under  sen- 
tence for  minor  offenses.  About  1,500  are  sentenced 
to  prison  each  year,  and  a  like  number  are  dis- 
charged in  that  time.  Of  these  approximately  1,200 
are  discharged  by  the  expiration  of  their  sentences. 
Approximately  600  applications  for  pardon  come  up 
each  year.  The  President  considers  about  two- 
thirds  of  these  cases.  He  unconditionally  pardons 
a  few  and  commutes  the  sentences  of  over  a  hun- 
dred. It  costs  the  United  States  Government  about 
$200  a  year  to  maintain  each  of  its  prisoners.  The 
Department  of  Justice  operates  a  criminal  identifi- 
cation bureau  and  has  upward  of  26,000  Bertillon 
records  and  20,000  finger-print  records  of  crimi- 
nals, great  and  petty,  in  the  United  States.  In  a 
single  year  it  was  able  to  identify  some  800  crimi- 
nals by  these  records. 

In  connection  with  the  Federal  prisoners  in 
Alaska  an  interesting  question  has  long  been  pend- 


THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  JUSTICE      363 

ing.  It  is  the  custom  there  that  when  a  person 
without  means  is  found  badly  wounded  or  with  fro- 
zen limbs  to  charge  him  with  vagrancy  in  order  that 
he  may,  as  a  United  States  prisoner,  receive  the  nec- 
essary medical  and  surgical  attention  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  Government,  the  appropriation  for  sup- 
port of  prisoners  being  charged  with  the  expense. 
The  Department  of  Justice  feels  that  the  Federal 
Government  ought  not  to  be  burdened  with  the  care 
of  these  people,  hospital  bills  frequently  running  as 
high  as  $1,000  per  person.  The  Alaska  judges  de- 
clare that  these  victims  are  vagrants  and  that  it 
would  be  Inhuman  not  to  give  them  necessary  treat- 
ment. 

One  of  the  principal  duties  of  the  Department  of 
Justice  is  that  of  defending  suits  brought  against 
the  Government  in  the  Court  of  Claims  and  in  the 
district  and  circuit  courts  of  the  United  States. 
Nearly  6,000  cases  were  disposed  of  during  the  year 
1910  under  the  general  jurisdiction  of  the  courts. 
The  amount  claimed  in  these  cases  was  over  $3,600,- 
000 ;  the  amount  awarded  by  the  courts  was  slightly 
over  $500,000.  The  claims  referred  to  the  Court  of 
Claims  by  Congress  amounted  to  $11,730,000;  the 
court  awarded  the  claimants  $903,000. 

The  large  growth  in  volume  of  new  legislation 
with  relation  to  the  regulation  of  corporations 
under  the  interstate-commerce  clause  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  has  greatly  multiplied  and  expanded 
the  activities  of  the  Department  of  Justice.  The 
number  of  suits  which  it  is  called  upon  to  prosecute 
and  to  defend  have  been  increasing  from  year  to 


364       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

year,  and  the  ojfficials  of  the  department  forecast 
that  the  volume  of  business  will  continue  to  grow 
in  increasing  ratio. 

While  the  department  is  usually  able  to  command 
the  services  of  efficient  lawyers  in  the  prosecution 
of  its  suits  against  great  corporations,  it  is  fre- 
quently found  that  these  corporations  are  ready  to 
employ  the  department's  best  men  at  largely  in- 
creased salaries.  Some  of  these  special  attorneys 
do  accept  positions  with  the  corporations  and  leave 
the  Government  service.  Others,  however,  stick  to 
the  department  in  spite  of  the  allurements  of  large 
salary  offers,  and  sometimes  find  a  rich  reward  for 
doing  so.  Only  a  few  months  ago  Judge  W.  S.  Ken- 
yon  was  the  "chief  trust  buster"  of  the  department 
and  stayed  with  his  work  in  spite  of  large  salaries 
offered  him  in  the  commercial  world.  His  reward 
came  in  the  shape  of  an  election,  to  the  United  States 
Senate  by  the  Legislature  of  Iowa.  It  is  only  in 
recent  years  that  the  department  has  been  supplied 
with  funds  sufficient  to  command  the  services  of  able 
lawyers  in  the  prosecution  of  individual  suits.  Under 
a  more  liberal  policy  on  the  part  of  Congress  in  this 
direction  a  number  of  epoch-making  decisions  on 
the  interstate-commerce  laws  of  the  country  have 
been  rendered. 


XXIX. 

THE  PAN  AMERICAN  UNION. 

An  eloquent  testimonial  of  the  deep  interest  whicli 
the  United  States  feels  in  the  welfare  of  the  20  other 
Republics  of  the  western  world,  the  Pan  American 
Union,  with  headquarters  in  Washington,  is  a  unique 
international  institution.  Organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  promoting  commercial  intercourse  between 
the  21  American  Republics,  each  of  which  contrib- 
utes to  its  maintenance  in  proportion  to  its  popula- 
tion, its  work  has  expanded  and  its  activities  have 
widened  until  to-day  it  is  one  of  the  leading  factors 
in  promoting  trade  and  increasing  the  bonds  of 
friendship  which  tend  to  unite  all  of  the  countries 
from  the  Canadian  border  to  Cape  Horn. 

This  interest  of  the  United  States  Government  in 
her  sister  Republics  began  when  America  was 
young.  "When  James  Monroe  was  President  he 
boldly  announced  that  the  safety  and  welfare  of  the 
United  States  made  it  necessary  that  no  country  of 
the  Old  World  should  acquire  another  foot  of  terri- 
tory in  the  New  World,  whether  by  purchase,  con- 
quest, or  otherwise;  and  that  attempts  to  do  so 
would  be  regarded  as  acts  of  unwarranted  aggres- 
sion.    The  nations  of    Europe  were  astonished  at 

365 


366       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

the  boldness  of  the  new  Republic  of  the  west  in  thus 
serving  notice  upon  them  that  they  must  keep  hands 
off  of  American  territory,  but  they  decided  that  it 
would  be  best  for  them  to  acquiesce  in  this  attitude 
of  the  United  States,  and  so  the  Monroe  doctrine 
has  become  one  of  the  principles  of  international 
law  tacitly  recognized  by  all  nations.  To  this  doc- 
trine the  majority  of  the  Latin  American  Republics 
owe  their  political  existence.  Under  it  the  United 
States  stands  as  sponsor  for  practically  the  entire 
western  world  south  of  the  Canadian  boundary. 

Bound  together  by  so  many  ties  it  is  but  natural 
that  the  21  American  Republics  should  feel  a  deep 
interest  in  the  political  and  commercial  welfare  of 
the  whole  American  continent.  This  interest  will 
be  enhanced  by  the  building  of  the  Panama  Canal, 
which  will  vastly  benefit  them  all  and  make  even 
mere  essential  close  bonds  of  friendship  between 
them.  This  growing  interest  finds  concrete  expres- 
sion in  the  increasing  influence  of  the  Pan  American 
Union.  The  union  has  its  existence  by  common  con- 
sent and  cooperation,  and  its  administration  and 
duties  are  fixed  by  the  periodic  Pan  American  con- 
ferences held  in  the  capitals  of  the  various  coun- 
tries, to  which  all  of  the  countries  interested  send 
delegates. 

The  affairs  of  the  Pan  American  Union  are  con- 
trolled by  a  governing  board  composed  of  the  diplo- 
matic representatives  in  Washington  of  the  other 
American  nations  and  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the 
United  States.  The  affairs  of  the  union  are  admin- 
istered by  a  Director  General,  an  assistant  director, 


THE  PAN  AMERICAN  UNION         367 

and  a  corps  of  specially  trained  assistants.  The 
union  is  devoted  to  the  development  and  conserva- 
tion of  commerce  and  friendly  intercourse  and  good 
understanding  among  the  American  Republics.  It 
was  originally  organized  some  20  years  ago  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  action  of  the  first  Pan  American  confer- 
ence held  in  Washing-ton  during  the  autumn  and 
winter  of  1889-90.  This  famous  gathering  was  pre- 
sided over  by  James  G.  Blaine,  then  Secretary  of 
State,  who  long  had  advocated  such  close  union  be- 
tween the  21  Republics  as  to  make  them  one  great 
and  happy  family  of  people.  One  of  his  dreams 
was  of  a  Pan  American  railway,  to  unite  the  capitals 
of  all  of  the  American  Republics  and  to  stimulate 
commercial  and  social  intercourse  so  that  an  era  of 
understanding  between  the  various  peoples  would 
inevitably  follow. 

This  first  Pan  American  conference  was  attended 
by  eminent  delegates  from  all  of  the  countries,  and 
passed  a  resolution  providing  for  a  "Commercial 
Bureau  of  the  American  Republics"  which  should 
collect  and  distribute  commercial  and  general  infor- 
mation among  them  in  such  a  way  as  not  only  to 
foster  the  exchange  of  trade,  but  to  remove  the  great 
ignorance  of  each  other  which  existed  among  their 
respective  peoples.  At  each  of  the  succeeding  Pan 
American  conferences  the  activities  and  consequent 
opportunities  for  usefulness  of  the  Pan  American 
Union  have  been  enlarged.  Some  idea  of  the  growth 
of  the  work  of  the  union  may  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  in  four  years  the  number  of  letters  written 
per  month  increased  from  700  to   7,000.    In  the 


368       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

same  length  of  time  the  number  of  printed  publica- 
tions distributed  increased  from  60,000  to  600,000. 
No  one  has  been  able  adequately  to  measure  in 
money  values  the  great  growth  of  trade  that  has 
been  brought  about  by  the  work  of  the  anion.  But 
a  careful  compilation  of  easily  traced  direct  results 
shows  that  the  work  of  this  institution  has  resulted 
in  a  $50,000,000  a  year  increase  in  trade  between  the 
various  countries  supporting  it.  The  indirect  re- 
turns have  certainly  represented  a  far  greater  suc- 
cess even  than  this.  Yet  all  of  this  work  has  been 
done  upon  an  annual  expenditure  which  has  never 
before  amounted  to  as  much  as  to-day,  and  which  is 
now  approximately  $125,000. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  activity  of  the 
union,  and  certainly  one  which  has  been  a  great  fac- 
tor in  awakening  the  people  of  Latin  America  to  the 
possibilities  of  their  countries  and  to  the  advantages 
to  be  reaped  from  closer  union  with  the  United 
States,  has  been  the  monthly  magazine  of  the  Pan 
American  Union.  This  publication  carries  200 
pages  of  matter  a  month,  which,  in  quality,  value  of 
material,  character  of  paper  and  type,  number  of 
illustrations,  and  size,  compares  favorably  with  the 
best  of  the  popular  magazines  of  to-day.  Instead 
of  being  a  dry-as-dust  public  document,  it  is  a  live, 
twentieth-century  magazine,  dealing  with  the  prog- 
ress and  development  of  the  21  American  Republics. 

Its  travel  and  descriptive  articles  are  second  to 
none  published  in  the  current  literature  of  the  day. 
There  are  a  thousand  and  one  things  about  Latin 
America  which  are  not  known  by  the  average  reader, 


THE  PAN  AMERICAN  UNION         369 

and  which  are  of  surpassing  interest.  Likewise  this 
magazine  carries  to  Latin  America  messages  from 
the  United  States,  evidence  of  our  interest  in  them 
which  serves  well  the  purposes  for  which  it  was 
founded.  The  Pan  American  magazine  is  a  unique 
publication  in  that  it  carries  no  advertisements;  it 
is  even  more  unique  in  that  it  is  a  public  document 
and  yet  partakes  of  none  of  the  characteristics  of 
such  a  document  except  that  of  accuracy.  It  also 
has  the  original  characteristic  of  being  printed  in 
four  language  editions ;  in  English  for  circulation  in 
the  United  States,  in  Spanish  for  the  19  Spanish- 
speaking  Republics,  in  Portuguese  for  Brazil,  and 
in  French  for  Haiti  and  general  European  circula- 
tion. Fifteen  thousand  copies  are  issued  monthly, 
and  although  a  regular  subscription  price  is  charged 
for  it,  the  demand  is  larger  than  the  supply. 
.  Perhaps  the  best  library  on  Latin  American  sub- 
jects anywhere  to  be  found  is  that  possessed  by  the 
Pan  American  Union  and  known  as  the  Columbus 
Memorial  Library.  This  library  now  contains  ap- 
proximately 20,000  volumes,  composed  mainly  of 
books  relating  to  the  American  Republics.  There 
is  a  large  reading  room  where  all  of  the  leading 
publications  of  Latin  America  are  kept,  and  where 
the  newspapers  of  those  countries  are  constantly 
filed,  and  prove  a  great  boon  to  the  homesick  Latin 
American  whose  business  brings  him  to  Washing- 
ton and  the  United  States  with  increasing  frequency. 
The  20  Latin  American  Republics,  which,  with  the 
United  States,  support  the  Pan  American  Union, 
occupy  about  9,000,000  square  miles  of  territory,  or 


370       THE  AMERICAN  GOVEENMENT 

three  times  the  area  of  the  United  States.  They 
have  already,  in  the  beginning  of  their  industrial 
development,  70,000,000  people.  They  condnct  now 
an  annnal  foreign  commerce  valued  at  more  than 
$2,000,000,000.  One-half  of  this  business  has  grown 
up  in  a  single  decade.  The  tremendous  ''boost" 
which  the  completion  of  the  Panama  Canal  prom- 
ises to  give  to  Latin  America  will  probably  quad- 
ruple this  great  volume  of  business  in  less  than  a 
single  generation.  The  immensity  of  the  country 
represented  by  the  Pan  American  Union  is  empha- 
sized by  the  fact  that  if  a  merchant  vessel  steamed 
out  of  New  Orleans  Harbor  and  sailed  around  Pan 
America  to  San  Diego,  Cal.,  its  log  would  show 
15,000  miles,  or  nearly  five  times  the  distance  across 
the  Atlantic.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  a  man  inspired 
by  the  wanderlust  wished  to  make  the  unusual  jour- 
ney across  the  widest  portion  of  South  America 
from  Pernambuco,  Brazil,  by  way  of  the  northern 
coast  of  Brazil,  the  Amazon  Eiver,  and  over  the 
Ajodes  to  Guayaquil,  Ecuador,  he  would  be  obliged 
to  travel  approximately  3,500  miles.  As  he  entered 
and  sailed  up  the  Amazon,  he  would  discover  that 
the  river  empties  into  the  Atlantic  with  a  flood  four 
times  greater  than  that  of  the  Mississippi  Eiver, 
so  that  steamships  as  large  as  the  Lusitania  can 
navigate  it  a  thousand  miles,  while  the  largest  ves- 
sel which  loads  and  unloads  at  the  docks  at  New 
Orleans  may  ascend  still  another  thousand  miles 
farther  to  the  city  of  Iquitos,  Peru. 

The  possibilities  of  Latin  America  in  the  future 
are  beyond  forecast.     The  little  mountainous  Ee- 


THE  PAN  AMERICAN  UNION         371 

public  of  Salvador  has  a  population  in  proportion 
to  area  eight  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  United 
States.  But  assuming  that  Latin  America  may 
only  become  as  populous  as  the  United  States  is  to- 
day, the  total  population  of  the  20  Eepublics  would 
then  aggregate  270,000,000  people,  or  nearly  four 
times  as  many  as  they  possess  to-day.  The  Latin 
ximerica  of  the  future  promises  to  be  one  of  the 
world's  greatest  food-producing  regions,  and  to  pos- 
sess a  wealth  which  will  make  even  that  of  the 
United  States  to-day  look  small  in  comparison. 

The  Pan  American  Union  is  housed  in  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  the  many  beautiful  buildings  in 
the  city  of  Washing-ton.  In  its  architecture  it  dif- 
fers widely  from  that  of  any  other  building  in  the 
National  Capital.  Since  20  of  the  21  American  Re- 
publics are  of  Latin  origin,  the  general  style  of  the 
building  fittingly  suggests  Latin  American  treat- 
ment, while  at  the  same  time  it  harmonizes  with  the 
general  tone  of  architecture  that  is  symbolical  of 
the  new  Washington  and  which  has  found  its  latest 
verification  in  the  Corcoran  Gallery  of  Art,  the 
Municipal  Building,  and  the  Union  Station.  The 
building  is  a  monument  to  the  munificence  of  An- 
drew Carnegie,  who  contributed  three-fourths  of  the 
$1,000,000  required  to  ^^uild  it,  and  to  the  energy  of 
Director  General  John  Barrett,  who  developed  it. 
The  remaining  quarter  of  a  million  dollars  was  con- 
tributed by  the  21  Republics  forming  the  Union. 
The  United  States  Government  purchased  the  land 
for  $250,000  and  donated  it.  The  construction  of 
this  permanent  home  of  the  Pan  American  Union 


372       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

has  made  Washington  an  international  Capital  of 
the  21  American  nations.  The  building  was  de- 
signed to  be  the  home  of  the  American  Republics  in 
the  highest  sense  of  the  word.  Every  one  of  these 
Republics  has  its  private  home  in  the  residence  of 
its  ambassador  or  minister,  but  the  Pan  American 
Union  was  designed  to  be  the  home  of  all  of  them, 
where  their  representatives  may  meet  as  children 
in  the  house  of  their  fathers  to  discuss  all  questions 
which  may  arise,  to  celebrate  public  events,  or  to 
commemorate  glorious  days.  It  was,  therefore,  de- 
termined to  make  the  building  nearer  the  type  of  a 
residence  than  the  impersonal  public  building,  al- 
though it  should  still  possess  that  dignity  which  the 
subject  demands.  It  was  the  hope  of  the  Director 
General  that  when  the  representatives  of  the  vari- 
ous countries  passed  the  threshold  they  should  have 
the  impression  of  entering  their  own  homes;  that 
when  the  vestibule  or  staircase  and  the  large  assem- 
bly hall  should  shine  with  thousands  of  electric 
lights  as  a  brilliant  gathering  thronged  the  rooms 
to  honor  a  distinguished  visitor,  the  representatives 
of  the  21  Republics  might  have  the  impression  of 
receiving  guests  in  their  o^vn  residences  and  not 
in  a  commonplace  meeting  room. 

Latin  American  influence  in  the  architecture  of 
this  remarkable  and  beautiful  building  finds  its  most 
typical  expression  in  the  patio,  over  50  feet  square, 
in  the  central  part  of  the  front  section  of  the  build- 
ing. In  this  the  visitor  seems  translated  to  some 
strange  foreign  scene,  quaint  and  remote.    Here  the 


COURT  IN  PAN-AMERICAN  BUILDING. 


THE  PAN  AMERICAN  UNION         373 

effect  of  tropical  summer  is  maintained  throughout 
the  year.  This  large  patio  is  covered  with  a  glass 
roof,  built  in  two  sections,  which  are  operated  noise- 
lessly by  electricity  and  constructed  so  as  to  slide 
back  over  the  adjacent  flat  roof  of  the  staircase  when 
it  is  desired  to  have  the  patio  open.  In  the  colder 
months  the  glass  roof  is  kept  closed,  and  the  steam 
heat  gives  to  the  patio  the  warmth  of  tropical  sun- 
shine, while  in  the  summer  months  this  roof  is  kept 
open  and  permits  the  air  above  to  descend  unob- 
structed. In  the  patio  one  encounters  a  large  gar- 
den of  everblooming  tropical  flowers.  The  fronds  of 
great  palms  form  the  graceful  culmination  of  a  di- 
versity of  exotic  foliage  and  southern  bloom.  The 
unique  fountain  in  the  center  flows  all  the  year.  It 
suggests  the  Alhambra  and  remote  Moorish  days  in 
Spain. 

Well-lighted  offices  for  the  Director  General  and 
his  staff  open  off  of  the  patio,  and  at  one  end  is  the 
great  assembly  chamber,  which  is  called  "the  Hall 
of  the  Republics  American,"  the  only  room  of  its 
kind  ever  built  especially  for  international  conven- 
tions and  social  events.  Committee  rooms  are  set 
aside  for  important  conferences,  and  in  every  par- 
ticular the  place  is  designed  to  meet  the  needs  for 
which  it  was  built. 

It  is  the  intention  of  the  authorities  of  the  Pan 
American  Union  to  use  funds  donated  for  the  pur- 
pose by  Andrew  Carnegie  to  convert  the  5  acres  of 
ground  surrounding  the  Pan  American  building  into 
an  international  garden  full  of  significant  ideas  and 


374       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

suggestions,  so  as  to  poetize  the  site  and  make  it  a 
place  apart,  inspiring  and  beautiful.  The  grounds 
will  be  inclosed,  but  a  spacious  formal  court  in  front 
is  to  be  given  an  inviting  air  of  freedom  and  open- 
ness, so  that  not  until  one  penetrates  to  the  rear 
will  he  fall  under  the  spell  of  absolute  detachment. 
Once  there,  however,  the  isolation  will  be  complete. 
The  garden  house  at  the  extreme  rear  will  shut  out 
for  all  time  a  distracting  view  of  the  few  factories 
that  have  already  crept  into  this  favored  neighbor- 
hood. It  will  become  an  out-of-door  apartment, 
with  its  walls  as  richly  foliated  as  the  giant  hedges 
of  the  famous  Borda  Gardens  at  Cuernavaca,  Mex- 
ico, and  its  floor  will  have  a  fine  green  carpet  divided 
by  a  long  transparent  pool,  at  the  end  of  which  a 
beautiful  coral  reef  of  translucent  marble  will  de- 
fine itself  and  make  all  beholders  feel  something  of 
the  lure  and  charm  of  tropic  seas.  Phosphorescent 
marvels  will  appear  and  disappear  and  make  it  a 
scene  of  entrancing  beauty.  It  is  probable  that 
when  the  work  on  the  grounds  of  the  Pan  American 
Building  is  completed  they  will  be  the  most  beauti- 
ful in  the  entire  National  Capital. 

One  of  the  great  schemes  in  which  the  Pan  Ameri- 
can Union  is  interested  is  in  the  building  of  the  Pan 
American  Railway.  It  is  the  hope  of  every  high 
official  of  Latin  America  that  the  day  will  come 
when  Buenos  Aires  and  Washington  will  be  con- 
nected by  rail.  Link  by  link  this  hope  is  being  real- 
ized. One  is  now  practically  able  to  go  from  Wash- 
ington to  Guatemala  City  by  rail,  and  construction 


THE  PAN  AMEEICAN  UNION         375 

work  is  now  being  carried  forward  which  will  enable 
the  traveler  to  journey  from  Guatemala  City  to  La 
Union,  Salvador.  A  railroad  is  being  constructed 
from  Panama  to  the  westernmost  part  of  the  Ee- 
public  of  Panama,  and  a  large  part  of  the  distance 
from  that  point  to  La  Union  is  now  covered  by 
links  of  railways,  the  gaps  between  which  will  some 
time  be  filled  in.  Of  course,  few  people  who  have 
traveled  once  from  the  Guatemalan  frontier  to 
Washington  by  rail  will  desire  to  make  the  same 
journey  a  second  time,  since  the  water  trip  is 
cheaper,  almost  as  quick,  and  certainly  a  more 
pleasant  one.  But  the  effect  of  such  connection  be- 
tween Panama  and  Washington  will  be  such  as 
probably  will  hasten  the  construction  of  the  connect- 
ing links  between  Panama  and  Buenos  Aires.  It  is 
not  probable  that  at  an  early  date  it  will  be  possible 
to  make  the  journey  from  Washington  to  Buenos 
Aires  without  break,  but  when  Latin  America 
reaches  that  state  of  development  to  which  the 
United  States  already  has  attained,  it  is  certain 
that  one  may  travel  where  he  will  between  the  cap- 
ital of  the  northernmost  country  of  North  America 
and  that  of  the  southernmost  country  of  South 
America  by  rail. 

The  officers  of  the  Pan  American  Union,  all  of 
whom  have  been  in  intimate  touch  with  the  affairs 
of  Latin  America  during  the  past  decade  or  more, 
believe  that  the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  is  des- 
tined to  be  followed  by  an  era  of  development  and 
prosperity  that  will  affect  even  the  remotest  of  the 


376       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

nations  of  the  New  World.  They  also  believe  that 
it  will  result  in  the  United  States  assuming  a  com- 
manding: position  in  their  trade  relations  and  in  en- 
abling the  Pan  American  Union  to  scatter  broadcast 
the  seed  of  opportunity,  from  which  the  American 
manufacturer  will  reap  a  rich  harvest. 


XXX. 
THE   NATIONAL   CAPITAL. 

The  District  of  Columbia,  permanent  seat  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  of  America,  is  the 
smallest  political  division  of  the  country.  The  city 
of  Washington  is  merely  the  name  of  a  geographical 
section  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  although  resi- 
dents of  the  entire  District  are  in  the  habit  of  re- 
garding themselves  as  residents  of  Washington. 
The  city  proper  embraces  about  one-seventh  of  the 
total  area  of  the  District. 

It  is  absolutely  unique  among  the  cities  of  the 
United  States.  It  is  the  most  American  because  its 
population  is  made  up  of  people  from  all  the  States, 
and  yet  it  is  not  American  at  all,  for  the  reason  that 
its  residents  can  not  vote.  It  is  the  most  cosmopol- 
itan because  representatives  of  all  other  nations 
dwell  in  it,  yet  it  has  no  foreign  quarter.  Washing- 
ton's greatest  industry  is  government,  and  its  great- 
est product  is  politics,  but  the  issues  are  all  national. 
It  is  the  only  American  city  where  there  is  no  local 
partv  politics ;  in  fact,  it  is  the  only  city  of  the  civil- 
ized world  which  can  not  choose  any  of  its  local  offi- 
cers by  vote.  The  President  appoints  the  executive 
and  judicial  officers,  and  Congress,  sitting  as  a  City 
Council,  ''exercises  exclusive  legislation."    Despite 

377 


378       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

the  anomalous  spectacle  presented  by  the  Capital 
city  of  a  democratic  country  being  governed  in  the- 
ory by  an  autocracy,  the  people  are  content,  public 
opinion  rules,  and  the  city  itself  is  a  masterful  argu- 
ment for  the  continuation  of  the  present  plan. 

As  it  is  now  constituted,  the  executive  government 
of  the  District  is  intrusted  to  three  commissioners, 
one  of  whom  must  be  an  officer  of  at  least  the  rank 
of  major  in  the  Engineer  Corps  of  the  Army,  or  a 
captain  who  has  served  at  least  15  years  in  the 
Army.  The  commissioners  administer  the  details 
of  government,  prepare  the  budget,  transmit  it  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who,  with  such 
changes  as  he  deems  advisable,  forwards  it  to  Con- 
gress, and  the  commissioners  advocate  it  and  other 
District  legislation  before  the  District  of  Columbia 
committees.  Because  of  the  fact  that  the  commis- 
sioners and  Congress  are  not  directly  responsible  to 
the  people  of  the  District,  a  system  of  expressing 
public  opinion  has  been  developed  in  Washington, 
which  is  absolutely  unique.  Under  its  operation  the 
government  is  in  practice,  though  not  in  theory,  sen- 
sitively responsive  to  public  opinion,  being  unafraid 
of  elections  and  independent  of  party  bosses. 

"Washington  is  the  most  beautiful  city  in  the 
United  States,  and  is  claimed  by  many  authorities 
to  have  no  peer  in  the  world.  Paris  has  more  mag- 
nificent vistas,  but  there  are  quarters  of  the  iYench 
capital  with  never  a  claim  to  beauty.  There  are 
more  shade  trees  in  Washington  than  in  any  other 
city  in  the  world.  It  has  92,000  trees,  while  Paris, 
the  next  in  the  list,  has  only  85,000.    It  must  be 


THE   NATIONAL   CAPITAL  379 

remembered  in  this  connection  that  Paris  has  nearly 
3,000,000  population,  while  Washington  has  but 
330,000. 

The  city  has  275  little  parks  less  than  1  acre  in 
extent,  and  26  others  that  are  more  than  an  acre  in 
size.  There  are  also  10  large  parks  in  the  central 
portion  of  the  city,  the  largest  being  the  Mall,  reach- 
ing from  the  Botanic  Garden,  at  the  foot  of  Capitol 
Hill,  to  the  Washington  Monument,  a  distance  of 
three-fourths  of  a  mile.  The  crowning  glory  of 
Washington's  park  system  are  Eock  Creek  Park 
and  the  Zoological  Park,  which  are  practically  one. 
These  have  a  combined  area  of  1,776  acres.  Eock 
Creek  Park  is  not  excelled  in  beauty  by  any  driving 
park  in  the  world. 

Washington  has  a  greater  number  of  institutions 
of  learning  than  any  other  city.  Universities, 
training  schools,  finishing  schools,  professional 
schools,  and  preparatory  schools  are  supplemented 
by  the  excellent  public-school  system  which  was 
started  in  1805.  The  wealthier  citizens  subscribed 
funds  from  their  private  purses,  but  opened  the 
schools  to  all  comers.  Thomas  Jefferson  was  then 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  was  elected  to 
the  board  of  education  and  became  its  first  presi- 
dent. The  Smithsonian  Institution,  the  Carnegie 
Institution,  the  scientific  bureaus  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  the  great  libraries  in  Washington  attract 
scientists  from  all  over  the  world,  and  there  are 
more  men  actually  engaged  in  scientific  research 
there  than  in  any  other  city  on  the  globe.  The  tele- 
graph and  telephone  are  among  the  thousands  of  in- 


380       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

ventions  that  have  come  from  the  workshops  of 
Washington  scientists. 

More  negroes  live  in  Washington  than  in  any 
other  city,  approximately  100,000  of  the  total  popu- 
lation of  330,000  being  of  African  descent.  Many 
Washington  negroes  are  among  the  most  advanced 
of  their  race,  and  Washington  is  the  only  city  where 
there  is  a  distinct  Afro-American  society  which  ap- 
plies the  standards  of  American  morals  and  man- 
ners to  its  own  conduct.  The  negroes  are  repre- 
sented on  the  school  board,  hold  places  of  honor  and 
profit  under  the  District  government,  and  enjoy 
equality  before  the  law. 

Much  has  been  written  about  social  usages  in 
Washington,  and  if  one  who  had  never  visited  the 
city  formed  his  notions  of  it  from  reading  such  arti- 
cles, he  would  imagine  a  city  noisy  with  the  rush 
of  carriages  from  dinner  to  dinner,  and  whose 
streets  were  cushioned  with  a  debris  of  visiting 
cards  from  morning  calls.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
there  are  some  few  people  in  Washington  who  do 
observe  with  punctilious  care  all  the  demands  of 
official  etiquette.  There  are  others  who  observe 
such  of  these  rules  as  they  choose,  and  still  others 
whose  social  activity  is  sporadic.  And  then  there 
are  some  300,000  who  live  wholly  without  the  pale 
of  what  is  called  "society." 

The  conundrum,  ''When  is  a  lion  not  a  lionT* 
finds  its  answer  in  Washington.  Men  who  have  at- 
tained prominence  and  fame  are  so  common  that  no 
one  turns  on  the  streets  to  see  a  great  Cabinet  min- 
ister or  a  Senator.     Celebrities  who  fill  columns  of 


THE   NATIONAL   CAPITAL  381 

the  newspapers  when  they  visit  other  American 
cities  go  in  and  out  among  the  Washingtonians  day- 
after  day  without  attracting  notice.  The  President 
alone  is  enough  of  a  hero  to  command  the  attention 
of  the  people  in  the  street. 

The  Washington  hotels  and  boarding  houses  are 
characteristic.  They  are  parceled  out,  in  a  fashion, 
among  the  States.  A  man  from  Maine  will  go  to 
the  Hotel  Hamilton,  for  there  he  will  find  other  men 
from  Maine.  While  the  Ebbitt  House  is  officially 
sacred  to  the  Army  and  Navy,  Tennesseeans  also 
have  made  it  their  headquarters  for  years.  So  in 
the  boarding  houses.  A  landlady  who  affects  corn 
bread  and  hot  biscuits  will  have  a  Southern  clien- 
tele, and  the  fame  of  a  boarding  house  where  brown 
bread  and  beans  may  be  had,  flanked  with  the  sacred 
cod,  will  attract  the  Bostonian.  In  some  boarding 
houses  there  are  State  tables,  all  the  boarders  from 
Georgia  being  grouped  about  one  table,  those  from 
Illinois  at  another.  This  is  the  last  surviving  re- 
minder of  the  congressional  ''messes"  of  the  early 
days  of  the  Republic. 

There  is  in  Washington  a  colony  of  wealthy  Amer- 
icans who  have  no  connection  whatever  with  the 
business  of  government  or  of  politics.  Millionaires 
choose  Washington  for  their  winter  residence,  and 
erect  magnificent  mansions,  which  are  occupied  for 
only  a  few  months  of  the  year.  Some  of  these  have 
cost  more  than  a  million  dollars,  and  a  few  which 
approach  the  million  mark  are  now  in  course  of 
construction.  A  rental  of  $50,000  a  year  was  offered 
for  one  of  the  Washington  palaces  not  long  sincGj 


382       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

and  refused.  For  some  the  glamour  of  the  Ameri- 
can court  is  the  attraction,  for  others  the  knowledge 
that  the  gates  swing  inward  for  the  stranger  more 
readily  here  than  in  other  cities,  and  for  still  others 
the  advantage  of  beautiful  surroundings  which 
."Washington  so  richly  affords. 

The  clubs  in  Washington  are  of  really  great  im- 
portance. At  the  Metropolitan  Club,  the  men. who 
mold  the  affairs  of  the  Nation  are  wont  to  talk 
things  over  in  man-to-man  fashion.  The  Cosmos 
Club  is  the  largest  scientific  club  in  the  world.  Its 
membership  includes  the  greatest  inventors  and  in- 
vestigators of  the  scientific  world,  and  its  fine  old 
house,  once  owned  and  occupied  by  Dolly  Madison, 
is  the  social  clearing  house  of  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitution and  the  Carnegie  Institution.  Chevy  Chase 
Country  Club  is  most  brilliant  socially  and  the 
Army  and  Navy  Club  is  a  great  organization.  The 
National  Press  Club  is  the  representative  news- 
paper club  of  the  world.  Its  membership  is  the 
most  cosmopolitan  and  its  influence  the  most  exten- 
sive of  any  similar  organization  in  existence. 

Washington  is  not  less  famous  for  its  learned  so- 
cieties than  it  is  for  its  clubs.  Unique  among  these 
is  The  National  Geographic  Society,  the  largest 
scientific  institution  in  the  world.  This  uniqueness 
consists  in  the  fact  that  it  has  made  the  happiest 
combination  of  the  work  of  scientific  research  and 
the  popular  dissemination  of  the  resulting  informa- 
tion to  be  found  anywhere.  Its  doors  are  open  to 
people  in  every  walk  of  life  who  are  interested  in 
geography.     The  result  is  that  more  than  a  hun- 


THE   NATIONAL  CAPITAL  383 

dred  tlioiisand  Americans  have  their  names  in- 
scribed on  its  membership  list,  and  that  the  number 
who  drop  out,  except  because  of  death,  is  negligible. 
Another  element  of  uniqueness  is  the  fact  that  it  is 
a  society  largely  supported  by  the  magazine  it  pub- 
lishes, rather  than  a  society  burdened  with  the  work 
of  supporting  such  a  publication.  This  magazine, 
while  not  neglecting  the  scientific  side  of  geography 
and  exploration,  presents  the  popular  side  as  does 
no  other  publication  in  the  world.  The  society  aids 
geographers  by  financial  grants  and  otherwise.  It 
sent  a  body  of  scientists  to  Alaska  to  study  the  gla- 
ciers and  glacial  formations  of  that  region.  It  is 
believed  that  this  work  will  throw  more  light  on  the 
geological  age  when  America  was  a  continent  of  ice 
than  ever  before  has  been  given  to  the  world. 

Washington  has  not  always  been  the  beautiful 
Capital,  political  center,  and  the  scene  of  social 
activities  that  it  is  to-day.  In  the  beginning  little 
attention  was  paid  to  the  needs  of  the  District.  Con- 
gress refused  to  appropriate  money  to  erect  public 
buildings,  and  the  commissioners  were  forced  to 
borrow  from  the  States,  Virginia  loaning  $120,000 
and  Maryland  $72,000.  Congress  again  refusing  to 
vote  money,  Maryland  let  the  new  National  Capital 
have  another  $100,000,  but  only  on  the  personal  se- 
curity of  the  commissioners.  In  those  days  the  pub- 
lic credit  was  poor  indeed.  The  Union  was  only  an 
experiment,  and  the  Constitution  was  an  untried  and 
sorely  mistrusted  instrument.  Few  men  thought 
that  the  States  would  stick  together.  "When  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  President  he  offered  to  give  a  fine 


384       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

building  square  on  Sixteenth  Street,  which  extends 
north  from  the  front  of  the  White  House,  to  any 
European  nation  that  would  erect  a  legation  build- 
ing. Not  one  of  the  countries  of  the  world  thought 
that  the  United  States  would  amount  to  enough  to 
justify  the  building  of  a  legation  at  Washington, 
and  no  one  accepted  the  offer.  Recently  Germany 
paid  $125,000  for  a  site  for  an  embassy  building  on 
the  same  street.  Had  Jefferson's  offer  been  accepted 
by  the  nations,  Sixteenth  Street,  the  handsomest  of 
boulevards,  would  have  been  to-day  the  Avenue  of 
the  Ambassadors.  Now  it  is  proposed  to  change  the 
name  to  the  Avenue  of  the  Presidents,  because  every 
President  since  Adams  has  looked  out  from  his  win- 
dows on  its  beautiful  sweep  to  Boundary  Hill. 

The  rivalry  between  the  North  and  the  South  was 
marked  in  those  early  days,  and  the  question  of  the 
location  of  the  Federal  District  was  debated  with 
heat  and  earnestness.  The  Northern  States  in  Con- 
gress, led  by  Alexander  Hamilton,  favored  the  as- 
sumption of  the  Revolutionary  War  debts  of  the 
States  by  the  Federal  Government.  The  Southern 
States  opposed  the  assumption. 

Thomas  Jefferson  met  Alexander  Hamilton  on 
the  street.  Hamilton  appealed  to  Jefferson  to  aid 
him  in  passing  the  assumption  bill.  Jefferson  gave 
a  dinner.  At  the  dinner  table  it  was  agreed  that  a 
sufficient  number  of  Southern  Congressmen  would 
vote  to  assume  the  State  debts,  if  a  sufficient  number 
of  Hamilton's  followers  would  agree  to  the  location 
of  the  Federal  District  in  the  South.  The  compro- 
mise was  put  through,  and  Congress  directed  that  a 


THE   NATIONAL   CAPITAL  385 

seat  of  government  be  selected  on  the  banks  of  the 
Potomac.  The  State  of  Maryland  ceded  70  square 
miles  and  Virginia  gave  30  square  miles.  In  1846 
the  portion  taken  from  Virginia,  including  the  town 
of  Alexandria,  was  retroceded  to  the  State,  and  the 
District  of  Columbia  was  reduced  to  its  present 
area. 

Alexander  E.  Shepherd,  a  plumber  by  trade,  first 
a  member  of  the  board  of  public  works  and  then 
governor,  was  the  moving  spirit  in  the  new  govern- 
ment under  the  reorganization  acts  of  1871.  If 
Washington  was  the  founder,  Shepherd  was  the 
builder  of  the  Capital  City.  He  found  it  a  strag- 
gling town  without  a  comprehensive  system  of  pub- 
lic improvements,  and  left  it  well  on  its  way  toward 
being  the  most  beautiful  city  of  the  world. 

Disregarding  the  protests  of  citizens,  he  tore 
away  an  unsightly  market  house  and  made  a  park 
of  the  space.  He  filled  up  the  miasmatic  open  sewer 
that  had  been  the  canal  of  earlier  days,  and  turned 
the  water  of  Tiber  Creek  into  a  great  sewer.  In 
less  than  two  years  he  paved  40  miles  of  street  with 
wood  and  50  miles  with  gravel.  He  laid  13  miles  of 
sewersandl4milesof  watermains.  The  wooden  pave- 
ments were  a  failure  and  soon  had  to  be  replaced 
with  asphalt,  but  once  there  was  a  pavement  the 
people  would  not  consent  to  return  to  the  mud  lanes 
which  had  disgraced  the  Capital  so  many  years. 

The  oldest  residence  in  the  city  of  Washington, 
the  one  whose  walls  have  housed  the  men  who  have 
given  America  its  storied  past,  and  which  are  still 
bound  up  in  our  dreams  of  a  glorious  future,  is  the 


386       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

"White  House.  When  it  was  provided  for  in  the 
original  design  of  the  city  it  was  known  as  The 
Palace.  When  it  was  first  built  it  was  ' '  The  Presi- 
dent's  House."  After  it  was  burned  by  the  British 
it  was  painted  white,  and  in  popular  parlance  was 
soon  called  by  its  now  familiar  name,  although  offi- 
cially it  was  known  as  "The  Executive  Mansion"  un- 
til Mr.  Roosevelt  became  its  occupant.  The  White 
House  it  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  for  there  is  so 
much  of  history  and  legend  in  the  old  name  that  it 
will  always  be  retained. 

In  the  third  year  of  General  Washington's  admin- 
istration as  President,  a  prize  of  $500  was  offered 
for  the  best  design  for  a  house  for  the  President. 
James  Hoban,  a  native  of  Ireland,  but  then  a  resi- 
dent of  South  Carolina,  was  the  successful  competi- 
tor. His  plans  closely  copied  the  design  of  the 
house  of  the  Duke  of  Leinster  in  Dublin.  Originally 
he  planned  a  three-story  structure,  susceptible  of 
being  extended  by  means  of  wings  and  colonnades. 
General  Washington  liked  the  idea,  but  the  public 
was  aghast  at  such  magnificence.  The  republican 
sentiment  prevailed,  the  plans  were  simplified,  and 
the  well-known,  two-story  building  of  few  rooms 
was  the  result.  The  corner  stone  was  laid  by  Wash- 
ington in  1792  and  the  house  was  completed  in  1799. 
It  was  first  occupied  by  John  Adams  in  1800,  and 
his  good  wife  Abigail  hung  out  the  family  washing 
in  the  East  Room.  Every  President  since  Adams 
has  lived  there  and  had  his  office  there,  until  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  had  an  office  building  constructed  to 
the  west  of  it.    Under  its  roof  have  been  adminis- 


THE   NATIONAL   CAPITAL  387 

tered  the  policies  which  have  resulted  in  the  growth 
of  the  loose  federation  of  13  poverty-stricken  Colo- 
nies into  the  mightiest  Nation  of  the  world. 

Burned  in  1814  by  the  British  troops,  the  White 
House  was  rebuilt  without  alteration,  except  that 
the  scorched  sandstone  was  painted.  During  Gen- 
eral Jackson's  administration,  the  northern  portico, 
the  one  oftenest  seen  in  pictures,  was  added.  No 
other  important  alterations  were  made  until  Presi- 
dent Eoosevelt's  time,  when  a  half  million  dollars 
was  spent  in  improvements.  When  Mrs.  Cleveland 
came  to  the  White  House  as  a  bride  she  had  visions 
of  entertaining  many  of  her  girl  friends,  knowing 
what  an  event  in  their  lives  it  wo  aid  be,  but  it  could 
not  be  done,  for  there  are  not  enough  sleeping  rooms 
at  the  White  House  to  permit  of  entertaining  more 
than  one  or  two  persons  at  a  time.  Despite  the  fact 
that  the  Nation  has  outgrown  the  house,  as  Hoban 
and  Washington  foresaw,  it  is  still  beautiful  and  in 
its  simple  grace  typifies  the  democratic  spirit  of  the 
greatest  of  Republics. 

When  George  Washington  selected  the  site  of  the 
Capital  City,  he  had  no  difficulty  in  persuading  18 
of  the  landowners  to  turn  over  half  their  property 
to  the  Government  in  consideration  of  the  enhance- 
ment of  the  value  of  the  half  retained.  But  with 
Davy  Burns,  a  canny  Scot,  who  owned  a  farm  where 
the  White  House  and  Monument  are  now  situated, 
it  was  different.  Washington  argued  with  Davy 
long  and  earnestly.  At  length  he  said:  ''Had  not 
the  Federal  City  been  laid  out  here  you  would  have 
died  a  poor  tobacco  planter."    Whereat  the  son  of 


388       THE  AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

Caledonia  retorted:  ''Ay  mon,  an'  hed  ye  no  mar- 
ried the  Widder  Custis,  wi'  a'  her  nagurs,  ye'd  hae 
been  a  land  surveyor  the  noo,  an'  a  mighty  poor  ane 
at  that."  When  Davy  wouldn't, Washington  told  him 
he  must,  and  he  consented  with  characteristic  Scotch 
thrift  by  extracting  a  proviso  that  the  site  of  his  own 
cottage  could  not  be  taken  and  that  no  lots  should 
be  sold  for  private  building  in  that  vicinity. 

Just  before  the  Civil  War  a  writer  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  said:  "Washington  is  the  Elysium  of  oddi- 
ties, the  Limbo  of  absurdities,  an  imbroglio  of  ludi- 
crous anomalies.  Planned  on  a  scale  of  surpassing 
grandeur,  its  architectural  execution  is  almost  con- 
temptible. It  has  a  Monument  that  will  never  be 
finished,  a  Capitol  that  lacks  a  dome,  and  a  Scientific 
Institute  which  does  nothing  but  report  the  rise  and 
fall  of  the  thermometer."  The  prospect  must  have 
been  discouraging  at  that  time,  but  what  a  change 
we  find  to-day.  The  Scientific  Institute,  whose  ap- 
parent inactivity  was  the  cause  of  such  sarcastic 
comment,  has  given  to  mankind  the  science  of  mete- 
orology. The  Monument  is  completed  and  it  is  the 
most  imposing  memorial  ever  raised  by  man  to  the 
memory  of  a  leader  of  men.  The  Capitol  has  been 
completed,  and  its  Dome,  soaring  above  the  clouds, 
is  crowned  with  the  Emblem  of  Freedom  that  sym- 
bolizes the  highest  national  attainments  of  the  hu- 
man race.  And  plans  now  in  process  of  realization 
promise  to  add  greatly  even  to  the  present  glory 
and  beauty  of  the  Nation's  Capital,  and  to  make  it 
a  seat  of  government  which  will  be  the  envy  of  all 
nations  for  all  time. 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  Dl  E  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


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i 


lOOM  11/86  Series  9482 


ijlj  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  790  191" 


